Published in

American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, 11(13), p. 5443-5448, 2013

DOI: 10.1021/nl4030193

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Single Crystalline Nanostructures of Topological Crystalline Insulator SnTe with Distinct Facets and Morphologies

Journal article published in 2013 by Zhen Li, Shuai Shao, Nan Li, Klye McCall, Jian Wang ORCID, Shixiong X. Zhang
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Orange circle
Postprint: archiving restricted
  • Must obtain written permission from Editor
  • Must not violate ACS ethical Guidelines
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) are a new class of topological materials that possess unique metallic surface states protected by crystalline mirror symmetry. Their topological surface properties are expected to strongly depend on the surface orientation. By combining density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations and synthesis experiments, we demonstrate the controlled growth of single crystalline nanostructures of the prototypical TCI SnTe with distinct facets and morphologies. Our calculations suggest that the excess energy of the {111} surfaces can be either higher or lower than that of the {100} surfaces, depending on the stoichiometry, while the {110} is always higher than the {100}. In our synthesis experiment, we qualitatively controlled the stoichiometry by tailoring the growth temperature, and obtained two types of single crystalline nanowires: smooth nanowires dominated by {100} facets at high temperatures and zig-zag nanowires composed of both {100} and {111} surfaces at low temperatures. Notably, there is no {110} facet in our nanostructures, strongly supporting the DFT calculations. Our device fabrication and electrical characterizations suggest that both types of nanowires are suitable for transport studies of topological surface states.