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Solvothermally Synthesized Sb2Te3 Platelets Show Unexpected Optical Contrasts in Mid-Infrared Near-Field Scanning
Benedikt Hauer1, Tobias Saltzmann2, Ulrich Simon2
1†Institute of Physics (IA) and JARA - Fundamentals of Future Information Technologies, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany.
Abstract:
We report nanoscale-resolved optical investigations on the local material properties of Sb2Te3 hexagonal platelets grown by solvothermal synthesis. Using mid-infrared near-field microscopy, we find a highly symmetric pattern, which is correlated to a growth spiral and which extends over the entire platelet. As the origin of the optical contrast, we identify domains with different densities of charge carriers. On Sb2Te3 samples grown by other means, we did not find a comparable domain structure.
