Structural and electrical study of the topological insulator SnBi2Te4 at high pressure

DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2016.06.170

Authors: R. Vilaplana (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia) , Juan Angel Sans Tresserras (Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain) , F.j. Manjón (Universitat Politecnica de Valencia) , A. Andrada-chacón (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) , J. Sánchez-benítez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) , Catalin Popescu (ALBA Synchrotron Light Facility) , Oscar Gomis (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) , André Luis De Jesus Pereira (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia) , Braulio Garcia Domene (Universidad de Valencia) , P. Rodríguez-hernández (Universidad de La Laguna) , A. Muñoz (Universidad de La Laguna) , Dominik Daisenberger (Diamond Light Source) , O. Oeckler (Universit€at Leipzig,)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Journal Of Alloys And Compounds , VOL 685 , PAGES 962 - 970

State: Published (Approved)
Published: November 2016
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 9102

Abstract: We report high-pressure X-ray diffraction and electrical measurements of the topological insulator SnBi2Te4 at room temperature. The pressure dependence of the structural properties of the most stable phase of SnBi2Te4 at ambient conditions (trigonal phase) have been experimentally determined and compared with results of our ab initio calculations. Furthermore, a comparison of SnBi2Te4 with the parent compound Bi2Te3 shows that the central TeSnTe trilayer, which substitutes the Te layer at the center of the TeBiTeBiTe layers of Bi2Te3, plays a minor role in the compression of SnBi2Te4. Similar to Bi2Te3, our resistance measurements and electronic band structure simulations in SnBi2Te4 at high pressure suggest that this compound exhibits a pressure-induced electronic topological transition or Lifshitz transition between 3.5 and 5.0 GPa.

Journal Keywords: High pressure; X-ray diffraction; Transport properties; Topological insulators; Electronic topological transition

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I15-Extreme Conditions

Other Facilities: MSPD-BL04 beamline at ALBA Synchrotron