Growth and characterization of van der Waals heterostuctures formed by the topological insulator Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} and the trivial insulator SnSe{sub 2}
The formation, structure and electronic properties of SnSe{sub 2}–Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} van der Waals heterostructures were studied. Both heterostructures, SnSe{sub 2} on Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} and Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} on SnSe{sub 2}, were grown epitaxially with high crystallinity and sharp interfaces. Their electron band structures are of trivial and topological insulators, respectively. The Dirac surface states of Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} survive under the SnSe{sub 2} overlayer. One triple layer of SnSe{sub 2} was found to be an efficient spacer for separating a Bi{sub 2}Se{sub 3} topological-insulator slab into two and creating the corresponding topological surface states.