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- Title
Achieving environmental stability in an atomically thin quantum spin Hall insulator via graphene intercalation.
- Authors
Schmitt, Cedric; Erhardt, Jonas; Eck, Philipp; Schmitt, Matthias; Lee, Kyungchan; Keßler, Philipp; Wagner, Tim; Spring, Merit; Liu, Bing; Enzner, Stefan; Kamp, Martin; Jovic, Vedran; Jozwiak, Chris; Bostwick, Aaron; Rotenberg, Eli; Kim, Timur; Cacho, Cephise; Lee, Tien-Lin; Sangiovanni, Giorgio; Moser, Simon
- Abstract
Atomic monolayers on semiconductor surfaces represent an emerging class of functional quantum materials in the two-dimensional limit — ranging from superconductors and Mott insulators to ferroelectrics and quantum spin Hall insulators. Indenene, a triangular monolayer of indium with a gap of ~ 120 meV is a quantum spin Hall insulator whose micron-scale epitaxial growth on SiC(0001) makes it technologically relevant. However, its suitability for room-temperature spintronics is challenged by the instability of its topological character in air. It is imperative to develop a strategy to protect the topological nature of indenene during ex situ processing and device fabrication. Here we show that intercalation of indenene into epitaxial graphene provides effective protection from the oxidising environment, while preserving an intact topological character. Our approach opens a rich realm of ex situ experimental opportunities, priming monolayer quantum spin Hall insulators for realistic device fabrication and access to topologically protected edge channels. Topological states in atomically thin quantum spin Hall insulators suffer from instability against environmental factors. Here, the authors devise a strategy to preserve topologically protected states in monolayer indenene through graphene intercalation.
- Subjects
GRAPHENE; EPITAXY; SUPERCONDUCTORS; MONOMOLECULAR films; FERROELECTRIC crystals
- Publication
Nature Communications, 2024, Vol 15, p1
- ISSN
2041-1723
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/s41467-024-45816-9