Transport properties of band engineered p-n heterostructures of epitaxial Bi$_2$Se$_3$/(Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$(Te$_{1-y}$Se$_y$)$_3$ topological insulators

TL;DR

This study introduces a heterostructure method for growing high-quality topological insulator films, enabling electrostatic control of electronic properties and separation of conduction channels through layer thickness adjustments.

Contribution

It presents a novel heterostructure approach using a Bi2Se3 seed layer to improve epitaxial quality and achieve tunable electronic properties in topological insulator heterostructures.

Findings

Enhanced crystalline and electronic quality of heterostructures

Electrostatic tuning of band structure via back-gate

Separation of conduction layers with increased BSTS thickness

Abstract

The challenge of parasitic bulk doping in Bi-based 3D topological insulator materials is still omnipresent, especially when preparing samples by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Here, we present a heterostructure approach for epitaxial BSTS growth. A thin n-type Bi$_2$Se$_3$ (BS) layer is used as an epitaxial and electrostatic seed which drastically improves the crystalline and electronic quality and reproducibility of the sample properties. In heterostructures of BS with p-type (Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$(Te$_{1-y}$Se$_y$)$_3$ (BSTS) we demonstrate intrinsic band bending effects to tune the electronic properties solely by adjusting the thickness of the respective layer. The analysis of weak anti-localization features in the magnetoconductance indicates a separation of top and bottom conduction layers with increasing BSTS thickness. By temperature- and gate-dependent transport measurements, we show that the thin BS seed layer can be completely depleted within the heterostructure and demonstrate electrostatic tuning of the bands via a back-gate throughout the whole sample thickness.