Influence of vacuum degree on growth of Bi2Te3 single crystal**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10904013 and 11274060), the Natural Science Foundation of JiangsuProvince, China (Grant Nos. BK2009260 and BK20141329), and the Scientific Research Staring Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars,Ministry of Education of China.

Abstract

Bi2Te3 single crystals were prepared by the solid-state reaction method. The effect of the vacuum on the growth of Bi2Te3 single crystals was studied with varying the oxygen content by controlling the air pressure in the silica tube. High quality Bi2Te3 single crystals have been obtained and there is no influence on the growth by an extremely small amount of oxygen in a high vacuum at 1.0 × 10−3 Pa. As the air pressure is increased at 1.0 × 10−2 Pa, oxygen only mainly impacts on the growth of the surface for the prepared samples. Micron-sized rod-like structure and flower-like clusters are observed on the surface. For the samples prepared at 1.0 × 10−1 Pa, x-ray diffraction data show that the yellow part on the surface is Bi2TeO5, while the Bi2Te3 single crystal is still the major phase as the inside part. More interestingly, various crystal morphologies are observed by scanning electron microscope for Bi2Te3 near the boundary between Bi2Te3 and Bi2TeO5. Possible growth mechanisms for Bi2Te3 with different morphologies are discussed in detail.