Solvothermally Synthesized Sb2Te3 Platelets Show Unexpected Optical Contrasts in Mid-Infrared Near-Field Scanning Microscopy

We report nanoscale-resolved optical investigations, on the: local Material properties of Sb2Te3 hexagonal platelets grown by solvothermal synthesis. Using mid-infrared near field microscopy, we find a highly symmetric pattern, Which is correlated to a growth spiral and Which extends over the entire platelet As the origin of the :optical contrast, we identify domains with different densities of charge carriers. On Sb2Te3 samples grown by other means, we did not find a comparable domain structure.