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. 2024 Jun 13;29(12):2825.
doi: 10.3390/molecules29122825.

Heteroepitaxial Growth of InBi(001)

Thomas J Rehaag  1 , Gavin R Bell  1
Affiliations

Heteroepitaxial Growth of InBi(001)

Thomas J Rehaag et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

InBi is a topological nodal line semimetal with strong spin-orbit coupling. It is epitaxially compatible with III-V semiconductors and, hence, an attractive material for topological spintronics. However, growth by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is challenging owing to the low melting point of InBi and the tendency to form droplets. We investigate approaches for epitaxial growth of InBi films on InSb(001) substrates using MBE and periodic supply epitaxy (PSE). It was not possible to achieve planar, stoichiometric InBi heteroepitaxy using MBE growth over the parameter space explored. However, pseudomorphic growth of ultra-thin InBi(001) layers could be achieved by PSE on InSb(001). A remarkable change to the in-plane epitaxial orientation is observed.

Keywords: III–V semiconductor; InBi; InSb; molecular beam epitaxy; topological semimetal.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Possible heteroepitaxial orientations for InBi(001) on InSb(001). The InBi unit mesh is shown as red squares.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Bulk binary phase diagram for the In-Bi system with approximate locations of the samples discussed herein as colored crosses. Adapted from [38] and using parameters from [44].
Figure 3
Figure 3
RHEED patterns in the four principal orientations for InSb(001) after (A) surface cleaning and (B,C) additional anneals under Sb4 flux. (A) represents the mixed (4 × 2) + c(8 × 2), (B) is for (1 × 3), and (C) is for c(4 × 4). The long and short dashes above the patterns highlight the integer order and the fractional order diffraction rods, respectively. The InSb surface lattice spacings are shown in (C).
Figure 4
Figure 4
RHEED data for sample 1-A. Row (A) shows the four principal directions after growth, with lattice spacing recorded on each image. Rows (B,C) show patterns as a function of time during growth (in minutes, shown beneath each panel) in the [110] and [11¯0] directions, respectively. Features with a strong transmission diffraction character are labeled in red.
Figure 5
Figure 5
RHEED data for sample 1-B. Row (A) shows the four principal directions before growth, with InSb(001) (4 × 2) + c(8 × 2) reconstruction clear. Row (B) shows the corresponding patterns after InBi growth.
Figure 6
Figure 6
XPS data for sample 2-A. (A) The shallow core region at different stages of deposition. (B) Survey spectrum after the third deposition cycle. The corresponding region spectra with fitted photopeaks are (C) shallow cores, (D) Sb 3d, (E) In 3d and Bi 4d region, and (F) Bi 4f.
Figure 7
Figure 7
RHEED evolution for sample 2-B (A–E). The growth stage is indicated on the left, with total Bi and In exposure times noted. The four main azimuthal directions are shown. Surface lattice spacings are shown on each image, and the red value in C [110] indicates an additional structure.
Figure 8
Figure 8
AFM topographs for samples 1-C (A–C), 1-B (D–F), and 2-B (G–I). Rows are ordered by decreasing image size.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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