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Topotaxial mutual-exchange growth of magnetic Zintl Eu3In2As4 nanowires with axion insulator classification

Nature Nanotechnology (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Due to quasi-one-dimensional confinement, nanowires possess unique electronic properties, which can promote specific device architectures. However, nanowire growth presents paramount challenges, limiting the accessible crystal structures and elemental compositions. Here we demonstrate solid-state topotactic exchange that converts wurtzite InAs nanowires into Zintl Eu3In2As4. Molecular-beam-epitaxy-based in situ evaporation of Eu and As onto InAs nanowires results in the mutual exchange of Eu from the shell and In from the core. Therefore, a single-phase Eu3In2As4 shell grows, which gradually consumes the InAs core. The mutual exchange is supported by the substructure of the As matrix, which is similar across the wurtzite InAs and Zintl Eu3In2As4 and therefore is topotactic. The Eu3In2As4 nanowires undergo an antiferromagnetic transition at a Néel temperature of ~6.5 K. Ab initio calculations confirm the antiferromagnetic ground state and classify Eu3In2As4 as a C2T axion insulator, hosting both chiral hinge modes and unpinned Dirac surface states. The topotactic mutual-exchange nanowire growth will, thus, enable the exploration of intricate magneto-topological states in Eu3In2As4 and potentially in other exotic compounds.

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Fig. 1: Exchange growth of Zintl Eu3In2As4 shell on WZ InAs core.
Fig. 2: Topotaxial transformation of hexagonal InAs into orthorhombic Eu3In2As4.
Fig. 3: Parameter space for topotactic mutual-exchange growth of Zintl Eu3In2As4 NWs.
Fig. 4: Magnetic characterization of Zintl Eu3In2As4.
Fig. 5: Calculated magneto-topological phase diagram.

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Acknowledgements

In loving memory of our bright colleague and dear friend, Perla Kacman (1948–2024). We deeply thank M. Fourmansky and I. Boterashvili for their professional assistance in the MBE growth of NWs, M. Huecker in the MPMS3 measurements and S. Rabkin and X. Wang for additional scanning SQUID measurements. L.H. acknowledges support from the Irving and Cherna Moskowitz Center for Nano and Bio-Imaging at the Weizmann Institute of Science. H.S. is an incumbent of the Henry and Gertrude F. Rothschild Research Fellow Chair. B.Y. acknowledges financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant ‘NonlinearTopo’, no. 815869) and the ISF—Personal Research Grant (no. 2932/21). N.R. and B.K. were supported by European Research Council Grant (no. ERC-2019-COG-866236) and Israeli Science Foundation Grant (no. ISF-228/22). P.K. acknowledges the scientific cooperation project financed by the Polish Academy of Science and the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities. M.Z.-K. was supported by The National Center for Research and Development grant (no. EIG CONCERT-JAPAN/9/56/AtLv-AIGaN/2023). H. Beidenkopf and H.S. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (ERC-PoC TopoTapered—101067680) and the Israel Science Foundation (grant 1152/23).

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Author notes

  1. Deceased: Perla Kacman.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Condensed Matter Physics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Man Suk Song, Yufei Zhao, Hyeonhu Bae, Ambikesh Gupta, Binghai Yan, Hadas Shtrikman & Haim Beidenkopf

  2. Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel

    Lothar Houben

  3. Department of Physics and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Nadav Rothem & Beena Kalisky

  4. Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Magdalena Zaluska-Kotur & Perla Kacman

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Contributions

M.S.S., H.S. and H. Beidenkopf conceptualized this research. H.S. and M.S.S. designed and carried out the MBE growths. M.S.S. and L.H. conducted the electron microscopy imaging with EDS analysis and modelling of the interfacial crystal structure. Y.Z., H. Bae and B.Y. performed the DFT calculations and analysed the topological states. N.R. and B.K. performed the scanning SQUID measurements and analysed the data. M.Z.-K. and P.K. provided the results of the molecular dynamics calculations. L.H., B.Y., B.K., H.S. and H. Beidenkopf wrote the manuscript. M.S.S., L.H., H.S. and H. Beidenkopf prepared the figures in the manuscript and Supplementary Information. All authors contributed to the discussion and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Hadas Shtrikman or Haim Beidenkopf.

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Competing interests

M.S.S., L.H., H.S. and H.B. are inventors on US provisional patent no. 63/472,598 filed on 13 June 2023 under Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Jean-Christophe Harmand and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Song, M.S., Houben, L., Zhao, Y. et al. Topotaxial mutual-exchange growth of magnetic Zintl Eu3In2As4 nanowires with axion insulator classification. Nat. Nanotechnol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-024-01762-7

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