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Copyright Nature Publishing Group Jun 2016

Abstract

Topological insulators (TIs) are bulk insulators with exotic 'topologically protected' surface conducting modes. It has recently been pointed out that when stacked together, interactions between surface modes can induce diverse phases including the TI, Dirac semimetal, and Weyl semimetal. However, currently a full experimental understanding of the conditions under which topological modes interact is lacking. Here, working with multilayers of the TI Sb2 Te3 and the band insulator GeTe, we provide experimental evidence of multiple topological modes in a single Sb2 Te3 -GeTe-Sb2 Te3 structure. Furthermore, we show that reducing the thickness of the GeTe layer induces a phase transition from a Dirac-like phase to a gapped phase. By comparing different multilayer structures we demonstrate that this transition occurs due to the hybridisation of states associated with different TI films. Our results demonstrate that the Sb2 Te3 -GeTe system offers strong potential towards manipulating topological states as well as towards controlledly inducing various topological phases.

Details

Title
Topological states and phase transitions in Sb2Te3-GeTe multilayers
Author
Nguyen, Thuy-anh; Backes, Dirk; Singh, Angadjit; Mansell, Rhodri; Barnes, Crispin; Ritchie, David A; Mussler, Gregor; Lanius, Martin; Grützmacher, Detlev; Narayan, Vijay
Pages
27716
Publication year
2016
Publication date
Jun 2016
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1796458438
Copyright
Copyright Nature Publishing Group Jun 2016