2019/10/31 by Shuanglong Liu, Yang Xu, Yun-Peng Wang +3
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials #Gate voltage #Insulator (electricity) #Interface (matter) #Quantum tunnelling #Surface states #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #Voltage #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.5127065
openalex created_date 2019/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2020/01/21 · arxiv created 2020/06/08 · arxiv updated 2020/06/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
Interfaces between two topological insulators are of fundamental interest in condensed matter physics. Inspired by experimental efforts, we study interfacial processes between two slabs of BiSbTeSe2 (BSTS) via first principles calculations. Topological surface states are absent for the BSTS interface in its equilibrium separation, but our calculations show that they appear if the inter-slab distance is greater than 6 Å. More importantly, we find that topological interface states can be preserved by inserting two or more layers of hexagonal boron nitride between the two BSTS slabs. In experiments, the electric current tunneling through the interface is insensitive to back gate voltage when the bias voltage is small. Using a first-principles based method that allows us to simulate the gate field, we show that at low bias, the extra charge induced by a gate voltage resides on the surface that is closest to the gate electrode, leaving the interface almost undoped. This provides clues to understand the origin of the observed insensitivity of transport properties to back voltage at low bias. Our study resolves a few questions raised in experiment, which does not yet offer a clear correlation between microscopic physics and transport data. We provide a road map for the design of vertical tunneling junctions involving the interface between two topological insulators.