The growth of Bi2Te3 topological insulator films: Physical vapor transport vs molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Bi2Te3 topological insulator thin films have been obtained by several techniques. For future applications in spintronics or quantum computing high quality homogenous films with few defects and impurities are required. Molecular beam epitaxy has been widely used for the growth of these materials, however, this technique operates in ultra-high vacuum conditions which significantly increases its cost. In this work, the use of the physical vapor transport technique is explored as a low cost alternative. A comparison of samples obtained by both methods allowed to conclude that they do not have significant differences regarding the structural and morphological properties in spite of the film thickness difference. Moreover, ARPES measurements indicate bulk insulating behavior with Dirac-like, conducting surface states for all samples. This demonstrates the feasibility of the physical vapor transport technique as a simpler and cost-effective alternative to molecular beam epitaxy, for the growth of Bi2Te3.