1 research outputs found
Rapid Surface Oxidation of Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> as Indication for a Universal Trend in the Chemical Reactivity of Tetradymite Topological Insulators
Within
the past few years, topological insulators (TIs) have attracted
a lot of interest due to their unique electronic structure with spin-polarized
topological surface states (TSSs), which may pave the way for these
materials to have a great potential in multiple applications. However,
to enable consideration of TIs as building blocks for novel devices,
stability of TSSs toward oxidation should be tested. Among the family
of TIs with a tetradymite structure, Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> is
of <i>p</i>-type and appears to be the least explored material
since its TSS is unoccupied in the ground state, a property that allows
the use of optical excitations to generate spin currents relevant
for spintronics. Here, we report relatively fast surface oxidation
of Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> under ambient conditions. We show
that the clean surface reacts rapidly with molecular oxygen and slowly
with water, and that humidity plays an important role during oxide
layer growth. In humid air, we show that Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> oxidizes on a time scale of minutes to hours, and much faster than
other tetradymite TIs. The high surface reactivity revealed by our
experiments is of critical importance and must be taken into account
for the production and exploitation of novel TI-based devices using
Sb<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>3</sub> as a working material. Our results contribute
to the comprehensive understanding of the universal trend underlying
the chemical reactivity of tetradymite TIs