Structural and electrical study of the topological insulator SnBi2Te4 at high pressures

We report high-pressure X-ray diffraction and electrical measurements of the topological insulator SnBi2Te4 at room temperature. The pressure dependence of the structural properties of the most stable phase of SnBi2Te4 at ambient conditions (trigonal phase) have been experimentally determined and compared with results of our ab initio calculations. Furthermore, a comparison of SnBi2Te4 with the parent compound Bi2Te3 shows that the central TeSnTe trilayer, which substitutes the Te layer at the center of the TeBiTeBiTe layers of Bi2Te3, plays a minor role in the compression of SnBi2Te4. Similar to Bi2Te3, our resistance measurements and electronic band structure simulations in SnBi2Te4 at high pressure suggest that this compound exhibits a pressure-induced electronic topological transition or Lifshitz transition between 3.5 and 5.0 GPa. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.We thank Dr. Philipp Urban for preparing the sample. This work has been performed under financial support from Spanish MINECO under projects MAT2013-46649-C4-2-P, MAT2015-71070-REDC and CTQ2015-67755-C2-1-R and from Spanish Ministerio de Educacion, Cultura y Deporte as part of "Programa Campus de Excelencia Internacional/Programa de Valoracion y Recursos Conjuntos de I + D + i VLC/CAMPUS" through projects SP20140701 and SP20140871. One of the experiments were performed at MSPD-BL04 beamline at ALBA Synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff. J.A.S. thanks "Juan de la Cierva" fellowship program for funding. A. A.-C. and J.S.-B. are also grateful to Spanish MINECO for the FPI (BES-2013-066112) and Ramon y Cajal (RyC-2010-06276) fellowships. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for time on beamline I15 under Proposal EE9102.Vilaplana Cerda, RI.; Sans Tresserras, JÁ.; Manjón Herrera, FJ.; Andrada-Chacón, A.; Sánchez-Benitez, J.; Popescu, C.; Gomis, O.... (2016). Structural and electrical study of the topological insulator SnBi2Te4 at high pressures. Journal of Alloys and Compounds. 685:962-970. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.06.170S96297068

High-pressure studies of topological insulators Bi2Se3,Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3

Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3 are narrow bandgap semiconductors with tetradymite crystal structure (R-3m) which have been extensively studied along with their alloys due to their promising operation as thermoelectric materials in the temperature range between 300 and 500¿K. Studies on these layered semiconductors have increased tremendously in the last years since they have been recently predicted and demonstrated to behave as 3D topological insulators. In particular, a number of high-pressure studies have been done in the recent years in these materials. In this work we summarize the main results of the high-pressure studies performed in this family of semiconductors to date. In particular, we review recent results that address the main characteristics of the pressure-induced electronic topological transition and structural phase transitions observed in this family of compounds. Future high-pressure studies to be performed on these 3D topological insulators are also commented.This study was supported by the Spanish government and EU-FEDER under Grants: MAT2008-06873-C02-02, TEC2011-28076-C02-02, MAT2010-21270-C04-01/03/04, and by MALTA Consolider Ingenio 2010 project (CSD2007-00045). Due acknowledgement is also given to Generalitat Valenciana through projects Prometeo GV2011/035 and ISIC/2012/008. We are also indebted to the Vicerrectorado de Investigacion y Desarrollo of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia (UPV2011-0914 PAID-05-11 and UPV2011-0966 PAID-06-11). E. P-G., A. M., and P. R-H. acknowledge computing time provided by Red Espanola de Supercomputacion (RES) and MALTA-Cluster.Manjón, FJ.; Vilaplana Cerda, RI.; Gomis Hilario, O.; Pérez-González, E.; Santamaría-Pérez, D.; Marín-Borrás, V.; Segura-García Del Río, A.... (2013). High-pressure studies of topological insulators Bi2Se3,Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3. Physica Status Solidi (b). 250(4):669-676. https://doi.org/10.1002/pssb.201200672S669676250