The helical surface states of the S-covered topological insulator Sb2Te3(0001)

Abstract

The effects of S atom surface adsorption and substitution on the helical surface states of Sb2Te3 are studied by the density-functional theory with spin–orbit coupling being taken into account self-consistently. It is found that S atoms play the role of surface passivation when adsorbed on both surfaces of a 6QL Sb2Te3 film in symmetrical configuration. For symmetrical surfaces with both the top and bottom surfaces of a thin film with adsorbed S atoms, the linear dispersion of the surface states is found to be preserved and the topological surface states survive. The spatial distribution of charge density of the surface state at the point is also symmetric. For a film with asymmetric S atom adsorption, i.e., only one of the surfaces has adsorbed S atoms, the surface band structure is found to be very different. The degeneracy of the surface states from the two sides of a film is broken. The gap opens slightly at and the spatial distribution of charge density of the surface state at the point is also modified greatly. The Fermi level is robust against S impurity adsorption on the surface of Sb2Te3. Compared with S substitution, the effect of single surface S adsorption on electron structures is more prominent. This supports the idea that the topological insulator surface electronic states are dominated by its structural symmetry and the effect of the asymmetric environment of topological insulator Sb2Te3 films should thus be considered.