Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 76: Poster Session: Transport 2
TT 76.16: Poster
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 15:00–19:00, P2-OG1
Synthesis and characterization of the weak 3D topological insulator Bi14Rh3I9 — •Ali Scherzad, Sebastian Witt, and Cornelius Krellner — Physikalisches Institut, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The discovery of topological insulators generated high interests in the last decade. One of the main properties of topological insulators are surface currents and an isolated behavior inside the bulk. Motivated by recent Nobel Prize in physics for topological phases and based on previous work our goal was to synthesize novel types of topological insulators.
Here, we report the crystal growth of Bi14Rh3I9 [1] in different crucible setups. Besides a larger muffle furnace, we used a vertical Bridgman furnace to obtain larger single crystals. An optimization of the crucible setup and temperature profile was necessary due to reactions of iodine with the crucible. All experiments were done under argon atmosphere and we tested Al2O3, quartz, Nb, graphite, and BN as crucible materials. The prepared crystals were characterized by using Laue-type diffraction, x-ray powder diffraction, EDX analysis and preliminary physical measurements down to 1.8 K.
[1] B. Rasche et al., Chem. Mater., 25, 2359-2364, (2013).