Large-scale synthesis and electrical transport properties of single-crystalline SmB6 nanowires
Abstract
Topological Kondo insulator samarium hexaboride (SmB6) nanowires, with diameters of 60-150 nm and lengths up to 1-5 μm, were successfully synthesized in large scale by chemical vapor deposition using BCl3 and SmCl3 as precursors at 1070 °C. Transmission electron microscopy observation and selected area electron diffraction analysis indicate that SmB6 nanowires are single-crystalline and grow in a preferred direction of [1 0 0]. It also indicates that the growth of SmB6 nanowires might be governed by a vapor-solid mechanism. Conventional four-terminal resistance measurements show that the resistance of an SmB6 nanowire increases with decreasing temperature, but saturates at temperatures less than 10 K, which might be attributed to a true topological insulator with a metallic surface and fully insulating bulk states. Resistance measurements also indicate that the contribution of surface states to conductance in the SmB6 nanowire is enhanced remarkably; therefore the high-quality single-crystalline SmB6 nanowires with large surface-to-bulk ratio might be the best candidate for investigating the topological properties of this material.
- Publication:
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Journal of Physics D Applied Physics
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0022-3727/49/26/265302
- Bibcode:
- 2016JPhD...49z5302Z