Large-Area and Transferred High-Quality Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator Bi2-xSbxTe3-ySey Ultrathin Film by Catalyst-Free Physical Vapor Deposition

TL;DR

This paper reports the catalyst-free physical vapor deposition synthesis of large-area, high-quality ultrathin Bi2-xSbxTe3-ySey topological insulator films on mica, which can be transferred to various substrates and exhibit promising electronic properties.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable, catalyst-free method for producing high-quality 3D topological insulator ultrathin films with transferability and tunable electronic states.

Findings

Films show good ambipolar characteristics and quantum oscillations.

Carrier mobility comparable to bulk single crystals.

Thickness-dependent transition from massless to massive Dirac fermions.

Abstract

Uniform and large area synthesis of bulk insulating ultrathin films is an important subject toward applications of a surface of three dimensional topological insulators (3D-TIs) in various electronic devices. Here we report epitaxial growth of bulk insulating three dimensional topological insulator (3D-TI) Bi2-xSbxTe3-ySey (BSTS) ultrathin films, ranging from a few quintuple to several hundreds of layaers, on mica in a large-area (1 cm2) via catalyst free physical vapor deposition. These films can nondestructively be exfoliated using deionized water and transferred to various kinds of substrates as desired. The transferred BSTS thin films show good ambipolar characteristics as well as well defined quantum oscillations arising from the topological surface states. Carrier mobility of 2500-5100 cm2(Vs)-1 is comparable to the high quality bulk BSTS single crystal. Moreover, tunable electronic states from the massless to the massive Dirac fermion were observed with a decrease in the film thickness. Both the feasible large area synthesis and the reliable film transfer process can promise that BSTS ultrathin films will pave a route to many applications of 3D-TIs.