Exploiting the Close-to-Dirac Point Shift of the Fermi Level in the SbTe/BiTe Topological Insulator Heterostructure for Spin-Charge Conversion.

Properly tuning the Fermi level position in topological insulators is of vital importance to tailor their spin-polarized electronic transport and to improve the efficiency of any functional device based on them. Here, we report the full in situ metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and study of a highly crystalline BiTe/SbTe topological insulator heterostructure on top of large area (4″) Si(111) substrates. The bottom SbTe layer serves as an ideal seed layer for the growth of highly crystalline BiTe on top, also inducing a remarkable shift of the Fermi level to place it very close to the Dirac point, as visualized by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. To exploit such ideal topologically protected surface states, we fabricate the simple spin-charge converter Si(111)/SbTe/BiTe/Au/Co/Au and probe the spin-charge conversion (SCC) by spin pumping ferromagnetic resonance. A large SCC is measured at room temperature and is interpreted within the inverse Edelstein effect, thus resulting in a conversion efficiency of λ ∼ 0.44 nm. Our results demonstrate the successful tuning of the surface Fermi level of BiTe when grown on top of SbTe with a full in situ MOCVD process, which is highly interesting in view of its future technology transfer.