Nanometric Moiré Stripes on the Surface of Bi2Se3 Topological Insulator.

Mismatch between adjacent atomic layers in low-dimensional materials, generating moiré patterns, has recently emerged as a suitable method to tune electronic properties by inducing strong electron correlations and generating novel phenomena. Beyond graphene, van der Waals structures such as three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs) appear as ideal candidates for the study of these phenomena due to the weak coupling between layers. Here we discover and investigate the origin of 1D moiré stripes on the surface of Bi2Se3 TI thin films and nanobelts. Scanning tunneling microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveal a unidirectional strained top layer, in the range 14-25%, with respect to the relaxed bulk structure, which cannot be ascribed to the mismatch with the substrate lattice but rather to strain induced by a specific growth mechanism. The 1D stripes are characterized by a spatial modulation of the local density of states, which is strongly enhanced compared to the bulk system. Density functional theory calculations confirm the experimental findings, showing that the TI surface Dirac cone is preserved in the 1D moiré stripes, as expected from the topology, though with a heavily renormalized Fermi velocity that also changes between the top and valley of the stripes. The strongly enhanced density of surface states in the TI 1D moiré superstructure can be instrumental in promoting strong correlations in the topological surface states, which can be responsible for surface magnetism and topological superconductivity.

van der Waals Heteroepitaxy of Germanene Islands on Graphite.

We fabricated flat, two-dimensional germanium sheets showing a honeycomb lattice that matches that of germanene by depositing submonolayers of Ge on graphite at room temperature and subsequent annealing to 350 °C. Scanning tunneling microscopy shows that the germanene islands have a small buckling with no atomic reconstruction and does not give any hints for alloy formation and hybridization with the substrate. Our density functional theory calculations of the structural properties agree well with our experimental findings and indicate that the germanene sheet interacts only weakly with the substrate underneath. Our band structure calculations confirm that the Dirac cone of free-standing germanene is preserved for layers supported on graphite. The germanene islands show a small but characteristic charge transfer with the graphite substrate which is predicted by our ab initio simulations in excellent agreement with scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements.