Growth, Morphology and Stability of Au in Contact with the Bi2Se3(0001) Surface

Abstract

We report a combined microscopy and spectroscopy study of Au deposited on the Bi2Se3(0001) single crystal surface. At room temperature Au forms islands, according to the Volmer-Weber growth mode. Upon annealing to 100° C the Au deposits are not stable and assemble into larger and thicker islands. The topological surface state of Bi2Se3 is weakly affected by the presence of Au. Contrary to other metals, such as Ag or Cr, a strong chemical instability at the Au/Bi2Se3 interface is ruled out. Core level analysis highlights Bi diffusion toward the surface of Au islands, in agreement with previous findings, while chemical interaction between Au and atomic Se is limited at the interfacial region. For the investigated range of Au coverages, the Au/Bi2Se3 heterostructure is inert towards CO and CO2 exposure at low pressure (10-8 mbar) regime.

References in corpus (17)

• Topological Insulators
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• A topological insulator surface under strong Coulomb, magnetic and disorder perturbations
• Photoemission Spectroscopy of Magnetic and Non-magnetic Impurities on the Surface of the Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ Topological Insulator
• Tolerance of topological surface states towards magnetic moments: Fe on Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3
• CO Oxidation Facilitated by Robust Surface States on Au-Covered Topological Insulators
• Two-dimensional surface charge transport in topological insulators
• In-plane magnetic anisotropy of Fe atoms on Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$(111)
• Controllable magnetic doping of the surface state of a topological insulator
• Fermi-Level Pinning, Charge Transfer, and Relaxation of Spin-Momentum Locking at Metal Contacts to Topological Insulators
• The electronic structure of clean and adsorbate-covered Bi2Se3: an angle-resolved photoemission study
• Experimental verification of the surface termination in the topological insulator TlBiSe${}_2$ using core-level photoelectron spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy
• Distinct Effects of Cr Bulk Doping and Surface Deposition on the Chemical Environment and Electronic Structure of the Topological Insulator Bi2Se3
• Controlling the 2DEG states evolution at a metal/Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ interface
• Instability of the topological surface state in Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ upon deposition of gold
• Angle-resolved and core-level photoemission study of interfacing the topological insulator Bi1.5Sb0.5Te1.7Se1.3 with Ag, Nb and Fe