Epitaxial Growth of Ternary Topological Insulator Bi2Te2Se 2D Crystals on Mica

Nanostructures of ternary topological insulator (TI) Bi2Te2Se are, in principle, advantageous to the manifestation of topologically nontrivial surface states, due to significantly enhanced surface-to-volume ratio compared with its bulk crystals counterparts. Herein, the synthesis of 2D Bi2Te2Se crystals on mica via the van der Waals epitaxy method is explored and systematically the growth behaviors during the synthesis process are investigated. Accordingly, 2D Bi2Te2Se crystals with domain size up to 50 mu m large and thickness down to 2 nm are obtained. A pronounced weak antilocalization effect is clearly observed in the 2D Bi2Te2Se crystals at 2 K. The method for epitaxial growth of 2D ternary Bi2Te2Se crystals may inspire materials engineering toward enhanced manifestation of the subtle surface states of TIs and thereby facilitate their potential applications in next-generation spintronics.