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Fe/Sb 2 Te 3 Interface Reconstruction through Mild Thermal Annealing
Author(s) -
Longo Emanuele,
Wiemer Claudia,
Cecchini Raimondo,
Longo Massimo,
Lamperti Alessio,
Khanas Anton,
Zenkevich Andrei,
Cantoni Matteo,
Rinaldi Christian,
Fanciulli Marco,
Mantovan Roberto
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials interfaces
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.671
H-Index - 65
ISSN - 2196-7350
DOI - 10.1002/admi.202000905
Subject(s) - materials science , heterojunction , ferromagnetism , annealing (glass) , magnetism , condensed matter physics , coercivity , superconductivity , bilayer , optoelectronics , metallurgy , physics , membrane , biology , genetics
Abstract When coupled with ferromagnetic layers (FM), topological insulators (TI) are expected to boost the charge‐to‐spin conversion efficiency across the FM/TI interface. In this context, a thorough control and optimization of the FM/TI interface quality are requested. Here, the evolution of the chemical, structural, and magnetic properties of the Fe/Sb 2 Te 3 heterostructure is presented as a function of a rapid mild thermal annealing conducted on the Sb 2 Te 3 ‐TI (up to 200 °C). While the bilayer is not subjected to any thermal treatment upon Fe deposition, the annealing of Sb 2 Te 3 markedly improves its crystalline quality, leading to an increase in the fraction of ferromagnetic Fe atoms at the buried Fe/Sb 2 Te 3 interface and a slight lowering of the magnetic coercivity of the Fe layer. The method is an efficient tool to clean up the Fe/Sb 2 Te 3 interface, which may be extended to different FM/TI heterostructures. Simultaneously to the interface reconstruction, a constant ≈20% fraction of FeTe develops at the interface. Since FeTe can display superconductivity, the Fe/Sb 2 Te 3 system could have potentialities for exploiting phenomena at the edge of magnetism, superconductivity and topology.