Epitaxial Growth of Ternary Topological Insulator Bi Te Se 2D Crystals on Mica.

Nanostructures of ternary topological insulator (TI) Bi Te Se are, in principle, advantageous to the manifestation of topologically nontrivial surface states, due to significantly enhanced surface-to-volume ratio compared with its bulk crystals counterparts. Herein, the synthesis of 2D Bi Te Se crystals on mica via the van der Waals epitaxy method is explored and systematically the growth behaviors during the synthesis process are investigated. Accordingly, 2D Bi Te Se crystals with domain size up to 50 µm large and thickness down to 2 nm are obtained. A pronounced weak antilocalization effect is clearly observed in the 2D Bi Te Se crystals at 2 K. The method for epitaxial growth of 2D ternary Bi Te Se crystals may inspire materials engineering toward enhanced manifestation of the subtle surface states of TIs and thereby facilitate their potential applications in next-generation spintronics.