Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of In₄Se₃ layered semiconductor crystals

Chem. Met. Alloys 4 (2011) 1-5

https://doi.org/10.30970/cma4.0135

P.V. GALIY, T.M. NENCHUK, O.R. DVERIY, A. CISZEWSKI, P. MAZUR, S. ZUBER, Ya.M. BUZHUK

The topography and local density of states of the cleavage surfaces of a layered semiconductor In₄Se₃ (100) crystal were analyzed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in situ. The shape and dimensions of the acquired STM profiles correspond well to the bulk lattice parameters. The local density of states and band gap for In₄Se₃ (100) were obtained by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), which gave the same gap value as for the bulk crystal. The STM/STS results show a local energetic and phase inhomogeneity of In₄Se₃ (100) cleavage surfaces on the atomic scale. The studies confirm that the furrowed and chainlike surface structure of In₄Se₃ (100) is stable and unreconstructed under the cleavage and might be suitable as an anisotropic, low-conductive matrix/template for fabrication of surface-conductive nanowires or nanostructures.

Typical averaged normalized STS spectrum of n-type In₄Se₃ (100) UHV cleavage surface, acquired from 50x50 nm² area. The conduction and valence band edges are indicated by lines, and the ticmark at +0.3 V indicates a feature in the bandgap region that arises from localized states.

Keywords

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy / Scanning tunneling microscopy / Local density of states / Low-dimensional structures / Layered crystals / In₄Se₃