Band Structure Engineering of Artificial Topological Insulator Superlattices Grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Band structure engineering of semiconductor heterostructures and superlattice has been extensively employed for tailoring the electronic band structure for a wide range of electronic and optoelectronic device applications. Here we propose to apply this concept to artificial topological insulator Bi2Te3/XBi2Te4 superlattices with X = Pb,Sn,Ge,Mn grown by molecular beam epitaxy and consisting of different alternations of Bi2Te3 quintuple and XBi2Te4 septuple layer blocks. Using ARPES we will demonstrate control of the topological surface states and bulk band structure by choice of superlattice materials and thickness of the individual layers. This will open new routes for tailoring topological insulators for practical device applications.