Studying the surface states of Bi 2Se 3 and Bi 2Te 3 topological insulators has proven challenging due to the high bulk carrier density that masks the surface states. Ternary compound Bi 2(Se xTe 1-x) 3 may present a solution to the current materials challenge by lowering the bulk carrier mobility significantly. Here, we synthesized Bi 2(Se xTe 1-x) 3 nanoribbons and nanoplates via vapor-liquid-solid and vapor-solid growth methods where the atomic ratio x was controlled by the molecular ratio of Bi 2Se 3 to Bi 2Te 3 in the source mixture and ranged between 0 and 1. For the whole range of x, the ternary nanostructures are single crystalline without phase segregation, and their carrier densities decrease with x. However, the lowest electron density is still high (∼10 19 cm -3) and the mobility low, suggesting that the majority of these carriers may come from impurity states. Despite the high carrier density, weak antilocalization (WAL) is clearly observed. Angle-dependent magnetoconductance study shows that an appropriate magnetic field range is critical to capture a true, two-dimensional (2D) WAL effect, and a fit to the 2D localization theory gives α of -0.97, suggesting its origin may be the topological surface states. The power law dependence of the dephasing length on temperature is ∼T -0.49 within the appropriate field range (∼0.3 T), again reflecting the 2D nature of the WAL. Careful analysis on WAL shows how the surface states and the bulk/impurity states may interact with each other. © 2012 American Chemical Society.

A topological insulator (TI) represents an unconventional quantum phase of matter with insulating bulk band gap and metallic surface states. Recent theoretical calculations and photoemission spectroscopy measurements show that group V-VI materials Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3, and Sb2Te3 are TIs with a single Dirac cone on the surface. These materials have anisotropic, layered structures, in which five atomic layers are covalently bonded to form a quintuple layer, and quintuple layers interact weakly through van der Waals interaction to form the crystal. A few quintuple layers of these materials are predicted to exhibit interesting surface properties. Different from our previous nanoribbon study, here we report the synthesis and characterizations of ultrathin Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 nanoplates with thickness down to 3 nm (3 quintuple layers), via catalyst-free vapor-solid (VS) growth mechanism. Optical images reveal thickness-dependent color and contrast for nanoplates grown on oxidized silicon (300 nm SiO2/Si). As a new member of TI nanomaterials, ultrathin TI nanoplates have an extremely large surface-to-volume ratio and can be electrically gated more effectively than the bulk form, potentially enhancing surface state effects in transport measurements. Low-temperature transport measurements of a single nanoplate device, with a high-k dielectric top gate, show decrease in carrier concentration by several times and large tuning of chemical potential. © 2010 American Chemical Society.