RETRACTED: Restorations of fresh surfaces for topological materials by de-capping Te

Abstract

Abstract The topological categorization originates from a depiction of the sequencing of bands around the band gap of the material in comparison to the normal vacuum type band ordering. The structure can either be normal or inverted, and thus topologically trivial or non-trivial. An odd number of Dirac fermions on the surface occurs in this type of material. Time-reversal symmetry is responsible to preserve the surface bands. On the other hand, topological crystalline insulator is protected by mirror symmetry; this system has an even number of Dirac surface state per BZ. Capping layer of Te or Se is necessary due to the high sensitivity of films surfaces to atmospheric pressure. The capping layer works as a protection from oxidation. In Bi2Te3 samples, the bonds between Bi and Te are covalent bonds while the bonds between Te-Te at a certain position are van der Waals bonds. Thereby, the bonds between amorphous Te cap and sample surface is weaker than van der Waals bonds within the sample structure. However, the top boost cleaving method was successful. But, for Pb1-xSnxTe samples the top boost cleaving method unsuccessfully results. The bonds between the metallic Pb1-xSnxTe sample surface and amorphous Te cap are stronger than van der Waals bonds in BaF2 substrate, i.e. F-F van der Waals bonds. In this paper, we present different techniques to recover fresh surfaces, from classical methods (such as sputtering and annealing) working for all types of films and top boost methods, which could be less used due to the strong bonds in some films. Moreover, we were able to recover the immaculate surfaces for non-capped samples. We present here in a systematic study by low energy electron diffraction (LEED), x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES).