Refine
Document Type
Language
- English (2)
Keywords
- Chalcogenides (1)
- Chemical vapor transport (1)
- Crystal growth (1)
- Thermodynamic modeling (1)
Institute
Direct Deposition of (BixSb1–x)2Te3 Nanosheets on Si/SiO2 Substrates by Chemical Vapor Transport
(2022)
The tellurides of bismuth and antimony (Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3) are prominent members of the V2VI3 material family that exhibit promising topological properties. We provide a method for the rational synthesis of mixed crystals of these materials ((BixSb1–x)2Te3 with x = 0.1, ..., 0.9) by means of a bottom-up chemical vapor transport (CVT) approach. Thermodynamic calculations showed the synthesis to be possible in the temperature range of 390–560 °C without significant enrichment of either component and without adding a transport agent. The starting materials were synthesized and verified by X-ray diffraction (XRD). Optimization experiments showed the ideal conditions for nanosheet synthesis to be T2 = 560 °C, T1 = 390 °C with a reaction time of t = 36 h. Crystals with heights of down to 12 nm (12 quintuple layers) were synthesized and analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, and atomic force microscopy. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirmed the R3̅m crystal structure, high crystallinity, and overall quality of the synthesized (BixSb1–x)2Te3 nanosheets. Magnetotransport measurements revealed that such ternary compounds can have a significantly reduced carrier density compared to the binary parent compounds.
Structural and Magnetic Transitions Caused by Dimer Formation in the CrCl3–MoCl3 Solid Solution
(2024)
In this work, we apply the concept of solid solutions to the two 2D transition metal trihalides CrCl3 and MoCl3. While CrCl3 belongs to the magnetically active CrX3 family, the magnetism in MoCl3 is intrinsically suppressed by the formation of aligned Mo–Mo
dimers, which also distort the regular honeycomb lattice that is typical for the 2D transition metal trihalides. We report suitable synthesis conditions for the gapless solid solution and crystal growth by chemical vapor transport. The CrCl3–MoCl3 solid solution was initially synthesized at 650 °C for 100 h under addition of MoCl5 as mineralizer, and bulk crystals were subsequently grown by vapor transport in a temperature gradient from
600 °C → 550 °C for 60 h. The obtained solid solution exhibits multiple composition-dependent phase transitions at room temperature, as confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction measurements. The possible presence of Mo–Mo dimers in the solid solution
was further investigated by infrared, Raman, electron energy loss, and nuclear quadrupole resonance spectroscopies. The combined results indicate that the Mo–Mo dimers are present over a wide range of compositions. Their orientation changes from parallel alignment for compositions from 70% ≤ c(Mo3+) ≤ 100% to random orientation for samples with c(Mo3+) < 70% content, which significantly affects the course of lattice parameters. Finally, the magnetic properties of the powder samples show a correlation between the Mo3+ content and the transition temperature into the low-temperature phase.