1. Is the topological surface state floating on top of a thick lead layer? The case of the Pb/Bi2Se3 interface
- Author
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De Luca, Oreste, Shvets, Igor A., Eremeev, Sergey V., Aliev, Ziya S., Kopciuszynski, Marek, Barinov, Alexey, Ronci, Fabio, Colonna, Stefano, Chulkov, Evgueni V., Agostino, Raffaele G., Papagno, Marco, and Flammini, Roberto
- Subjects
Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Condensed Matter - Other Condensed Matter - Abstract
The puzzling question about the floating of the topological surface state on top of a thick Pb layer, has now possibly been answered. A study of the interface made by Pb on Bi2Se3 for different temperature and adsorbate coverage condition, allowed us to demonstrate that the evidence reported in the literature can be related to the surface diffusion phenomenon exhibited by the Pb atoms, which leaves the substrate partially uncovered. Comprehensive density functional theory calculations show that despite the specific arrangement of the atoms at the interface, the topological surface state cannot float on top of the adlayer but rather tends to move inward within the substrate., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2023