Journal
PHYSICAL REVIEW B
Volume 99, Issue 13, Pages -Publisher
AMER PHYSICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.134108
Keywords
-
Funding
- U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Science and Engineering [DE-SC0016139]
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) [PA 1812/2-1]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51561145005]
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2016YFA0301002]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
SnTe hosts ferroelectricity that competes with its weak nontrivial band topology: in the high-symmetry rocksalt structure-in which its intrinsic electric dipole is quenched-this material develops metallic surface bands, but in its rhombic ground-state configuration-which hosts a nonzero spontaneous electric dipole-the crystalline symmetry is lowered, and the presence of surface electronic bands is not guaranteed. Here, the type of ferroelectric coupling and the atomistic and electronic structure of SnTe films ranging from 2 to 40 atomic layers (ALs) are examined on freestanding samples, to which atomic layers were gradually added. Four-AL SnTe films are antiferroelectrically coupled, while thicker freestanding SnTe films are ferroelectrically coupled. The electronic band gap reduces its magnitude in going from 2 to 40 ALs, but it does not close due to the rhombic nature of the structure. These results bridge the structure of SnTe films from the monolayer to the bulk.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available