Fabrication and Characterization of the Moiré surface state on a topological insulator
Yi Zhang, Dang Liu, Qiaoyan Yu, Ruijun Xi, Xingsen Chen, Shasha Xue, Jice Sun, Xian Du, Xuhui Ning, Tingwen Miao, Pengyu Hu, Hao Yang, Dandan Guan, Xiaoxue Liu, Liang Liu, Yaoyi Li, Shiyong Wang, Canhua Liu, Haijiao Ji, Noah F. Q. Yuan, Hao Zheng, Jinfeng Jia
Published: 2025/9/3
Abstract
A Moire superlattice on the topological insulator surface is predicted to exhibit many novel properties but has not been experimentally realized. Here, we developed a two-step growth method to successfully fabricate a topological insulator Sb2Te3 thin film with a Moire superlattice, which is generated by a twist of the topmost layer via molecular beam epitaxy. The established Moire topological surface state is characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. By application of a magnetic field, new features in Landau levels arise on the Moire region compared to the pristine surface of Sb2Te3, which makes the system a promising platform for pursuing next-generation electronics. Notably, the growth method, which circumvents contamination and the induced interface defects in the manual fabrication method, can be widely applied to other van der Waals materials for fabricating Moire superlattices.