Gating the charge state of single Fe dopants in the topological insulator Bi 2 Se 3 with a scanning tunneling microscope

Authors

Canli Song, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yeping Jiang, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yi-Lin Wang, Chinese Academy Of Sciences
Zhi Li, Chinese Academy of SciencesFollow
Lili Wang, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ke He, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xi Chen, Tsinghua University
Xu-Cun Ma, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qi-Kun Xue, Tsinghua University, Chinese Academy of SciencesFollow

RIS ID

115290

Publication Details

Song, C., Jiang, Y., Wang, Y., Li, Z., Wang, L., He, K., Chen, X., Ma, X. & Xue, Q. (2012). Gating the charge state of single Fe dopants in the topological insulator Bi 2 Se 3 with a scanning tunneling microscope. Physical Review B: Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, 86 045441-1-045441-4.

Abstract

Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is exploited to study directly the atomic and electronic structures of single Fe dopants in topological insulator Bi2Se3 thin films. Fe atoms predominantly and isovalently substitute for two distinct Bi sites at the subsurface with charge neutrality. In the vicinity of Fe substitutions, circular depressions in STM topography and sharp rings in spatially resolved conductance map, whose diameters apparently depend on the tunneling conditions, are observed. We show that the phenomena correlate well with the switching between Fe3+ and Fe2+ charge states due to the gate effect of the tunneling tip, as further evidenced by a multidopant system.