We have systematically studied the magnetic properties of chromium chalcogene compounds FeCr$_2$Se$_{4-x}$Te$_x$. The FeCr2Se4 undergoes antiferromagnetic ordering below 222 K. Substitution of tellurium lowers the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature and leads to short range ferromagnetic cluster behavior towards the tellurium end. Change over from antiferromagnetic to ferrimagnetic like behavior is also reflected in the corresponding transformation from semiconducting to metallic transport behavior. There is a large variation in the Curie-Weiss temperature, effective magnetic moment and ordering temperature (TN / TC) with Te substitution. The electronic band structure calculations suggest antiferromagnetic and ferrimagnetic ground state for the FeCr2Se4 and FeCr2Te4 respectively.
We study the chemical ordering in Bi$_2$Te$_{3-x}$Se$_x$ grown by molecular beam epitaxy on Si substrates. We produce films in the full composition range from x = 0 to 3, and determine their material properties using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. By fitting the parameters of a kinetic growth model to these results, we obtain a consistent description of growth at a microscopic level. Our main finding is that despite the incorporation of Se in the central layer being much more probable than that of Te, the formation of a fully ordered Te-Bi-Se-Bi-Te layer is prevented by kinetic of the growth process. Indeed, the Se concentration in the central layer of Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se$_1$ reaches a maximum of only $approx$ 75% even under ideal growth conditions. A second finding of our work is that the intensity ratio of the 0 0 12 and 0 0 6 X-ray reflections serves as an experimentally accessible quantitative measure of the degree of ordering in these films.
The structural polymorphism in transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) provides exciting opportunities for developing advanced electronics. For example, MoTe$_2$ crystallizes in the 2H semiconducting phase at ambient temperature and pressure, but transitions into the 1T$^prime$ semimetallic phase at high temperatures. Alloying MoTe$_2$ with WTe$_2$ reduces the energy barrier between these two phases, while also allowing access to the T$_d$ Weyl semimetal phase. The MoWTe$_2$ alloy system is therefore promising for developing phase change memory technology. However, achieving this goal necessitates a detailed understanding of the phase composition in the MoTe$_2$-WTe$_2$ system. We combine polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to study MoWTe$_2$ alloys over the full compositional range x from 0 to 1. We identify Raman and XRD signatures characteristic of the 2H, 1T$^prime$, and T$_d$ structural phases that agree with density-functional theory (DFT) calculations, and use them to identify phase fields in the MoTe$_2$-WTe$_2$ system, including single-phase 2H, 1T$^prime$, and T$_d$ regions, as well as a two-phase 1T$^prime$ + T$_d$ region. Disorder arising from compositional fluctuations in MoWTe$_2$ alloys breaks inversion and translational symmetry, leading to the activation of an infrared 1T$^prime$-MoTe$_2$ mode and the enhancement of a double-resonance Raman process in 2H-MoWTe$_2$ alloys. Compositional fluctuations limit the phonon correlation length, which we estimate by fitting the observed asymmetric Raman lineshapes with a phonon confinement model. These observations reveal the important role of disorder in MoWTe$_2$ alloys, clarify the structural phase boundaries, and provide a foundation for future explorations of phase transitions and electronic phenomena in this system.
We have investigated the optical properties of thin films of topological insulators Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3}$, Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ and their alloys Bi$_2$(Te$_{1-x}$Se$_x$)$_3$ on BaF$_{2}$ substrates by a combination of infrared ellipsometry and reflectivity in the energy range from 0.06 to 6.5 eV. For the onset of interband absorption in Bi$_2$Se$_3$, after the correction for the Burstein-Moss effect, we find the value of direct bandgap of $215pm10$ meV at 10 K. Our data supports the picture that Bi$_2$Se$_3$ has a direct band gap located at the $Gamma$ point in the Brillouin zone and that the valence band reaches up to the Dirac point and has the shape of a downward oriented paraboloid, i.e. without a camel-back structure. In Bi$_2$Te$_3$, the onset of strong direct interband absorption at 10 K is at a similar energy of about 200 meV, with a weaker additional feature at about 170 meV. Our data support the recent GW band structure calculations suggesting that the direct interband transition does not occur at the $Gamma$ point but near the Z-F line of the Brillouin zone. In the Bi$_2$(Te$_{1-x}$Se$_x$)$_3$ alloy, the energy of the onset of direct interband transitions exhibits a maximum near $x=0.3$ (i.e. the composition of Bi$_2$Te$_2$Se), suggesting that the crossover of the direct interband transitions between the two points in the Brillouin zone occurs close to this composition.
We have performed x-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and valence-band photoemission studies of the diluted ferromagnetic semiconductor Zn$_{1-x}$Cr$_x$Te. XMCD signals due to ferromagnetism were observed at the Cr 2p absorption edge. Comparison with atomic multiplet calculations suggests that the magnetically active component of the Cr ion was divalent under the tetrahedral crystal field with tetragonal distortion along the crystalline a-, b-, and c-axes. In the valence-band spectra, spectral weight near the Fermi level was strongly suppressed, suggesting the importance of Jahn-Teller effect and the strong Coulomb interaction between the Cr 3d electrons.
The intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ undergoes a metamagnetic transition in a c-axis magnetic field. It has been predicted that ferromagnetic MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ is an ideal Weyl semimetal with a single pair of Weyl nodes. Here we report measurements of quantum oscillations detected in the field-induced ferromagnetic phase of MnBi$_{2-x}$Sb$_{x}$Te$_{4}$, where Sb substitution tunes the majority carriers from electrons to holes. Single frequency Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations were observed in a wide range of Sb concentrations (0.54 $leq$ x $leq$ 1.21). The evolution of the oscillation frequency and the effective mass shows reasonable agreement with the Weyl semimetal band-structure of ferromagnetic MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ predicted by density functional calculations. Intriguingly, the quantum oscillation frequency shows a strong temperature dependence, indicating that the electronic structure sensitively depends on magnetism.