Nanoscale Conducting and Insulating Domains on YbB\(_6\)

YbB\(_6\) is a predicted topological insulator, with experimental evidence for conducting surface states of yet-unproven origin. However, its lack of a natural cleavage plane, and resultant surface-dependent polarity, has obscured its study. We use scanning tunneling microscopy to image the cleaved...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2024-01
Main Authors: Coe, Aaron, Zhu, Zhi-Huai, He, Yang, Dae-Jeong, Kim, Fisk, Zachary, Hoffman, Jason, Hoffman, Jennifer
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Insulation
Quantum wells
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Topological insulators
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Summary:YbB\(_6\) is a predicted topological insulator, with experimental evidence for conducting surface states of yet-unproven origin. However, its lack of a natural cleavage plane, and resultant surface-dependent polarity, has obscured its study. We use scanning tunneling microscopy to image the cleaved surface of YbB\(_6\), exhibiting several coexisting terminations with distinct atomic structures. Our spectroscopic measurements show band-bending between the terminations, resulting in both conducting and fully-gapped regions. In the conductive regions, we observe spectral peaks that are suggestive of van Hove singularities arising from Rashba spin-split quantum well states. The insulating regions rule out the possibility that YbB\(_6\) is a strong topological insulator, while the spin-polarized conducting regions suggest possible utility for spintronic devices.
ISSN:2331-8422