Development and nanoscale characterization of back-gated topological devices

本提案的目的是建立拓扑绝缘体背门控扫描隧道显微镜的方法，在局部尺度上用光谱学和门控研究这些材料，并探索二维拓扑绝缘体的候选材料。虽然门控STM在研究石墨烯方面非常成功，但在拓扑绝缘体中尚未实现。智力上的优点如下。在执行STM的同时进行门控的能力将提供一个非常强大的控制旋钮来操纵拓扑绝缘体的属性并探索相互作用的作用。拓扑绝缘体超薄膜的发现对实现量子自旋霍尔效应具有重要意义。更广泛的影响如下。门控器件将提供将费米能定位在狄拉克点附近或远离体能带的能力，并为未来的应用提供最有趣的机制。二维拓扑绝缘体中畴壁边界的边缘模对于实现一维无耗散自旋输运具有潜在的应用价值。本科生、研究生和博士后将接受当今最前沿的材料和仪器培训？的研究。私家侦探？的综合推广和教育活动将使有才华的高中生接触尖端研究。有效指导该部门博士后学者的计划将影响未来科学家的培训。私家侦探？学校与林奇教育学院的持续合作将对城市地区初中和高中科学教师的培训和数量产生真实的可衡量的影响。

The objective of this proposal is to establish the methodology to perform back-gated scanning tunneling microscopy on topological insulators, study these materials on a local scale with spectroscopy and gating, and to explore candidate materials for two-dimensional topological insulators. While gated STM has been highly successful in studying graphene, it has yet to be achieved in topological insulators. The intellectual merit is the following. The ability to gate while performing STM will provide a tremendously powerful control knob to manipulate the properties of topological insulators and explore the role of interactions. The discovery of ultra thin films of topological insulators will be important to realizing the quantum spin hall effect. The broader impacts are the following. Gated devices will provide the ability to position the Fermi energy near the Dirac point or away from the bulk bands and into the most interesting regimes for future applications. The edge modes at domain wall boundaries in 2D topological insulators are potentially useful for realizing one-dimensional dissipationless spin transport. Undergraduates, graduate students and post-docs will be trained on materials and instruments at the forefront of today?s research. The PI?s integrated outreach and education activities will expose talented high school students to cutting edge research. The program to effectively mentor post-doctoral scholars in the department will impact the training of future scientists. The PI?s ongoing collaboration with the Lynch School of Education will have a real measurable impact on the training and numbers of science teachers in middle- and high schools in urban areas.