Engineering Multiple Topological Phases in Nanoscale Van der Waals Heterostructures: Realisation of $\alpha$-Antimonene

Abstract

Van der Waals heterostructures have recently been identified as providing many opportunities to create new two-dimensional materials, and in particular to produce materials with topologically interesting states. Here we show that it is possible to create such heterostructures with multiple topological phases in a single nanoscale island. We discuss their growth within the framework of diffusion-limited aggregation, the formation of moiré patterns due to the differing crystallographies of the materials comprising the heterostructure, and the potential to engineer both the electronic structure as well as local variations of topological order. In particular we show that it is possible to build islands which include both the hexagonal $\beta$- and rectangular $\alpha$-forms of antimonene, on top of the topological insulator $\alpha$-bismuthene. This is the first experimental realisation of $\alpha$-antimonene, and we show that it is a topologically non-trivial material in the quantum spin Hall class.

arXiv comment6 pages, 3 figures, plus Supplementary material (9 pages, 6 figures)

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Van der Waals heteroepitaxial growth of monolayer Sb in puckered honeycomb structure
• Temperature driven phase transition at the antimonene/Bi2Se3 van der Waals heterostructure
• Possible Excitonic Insulating Phase in Quantum-Confined Sb Nanoflakes
• Edge States of α-Bismuthene Nanostructures
• Evidence of directional structural superlubricity and Lévy flights in a van der Waals heterostructure
• Moiré plane wave expansion model for scanning tunneling microscopy simulations of incommensurate two-dimensional materials
• Mastering the growth of antimonene on Bi2Se3: strategies and insights