Raman Spectroscopy of Two-Dimensional Bi2TexSe3 − x Platelets Produced by Solvothermal Method

In this paper, we report a facile solvothermal method to produce both binary and ternary compounds of bismuth chalcogenides in the form of Bi₂TexSe3 - x. The crystal morphology in terms of geometry and thickness as well as the stoichiometric ratio can be well controlled, which offers the opportunities to systematically investigate the relationship between microstructure and phonon scattering by Raman spectroscopy. Raman spectra of four compounds, i.e., Bi₂Se₃, Bi₂Se₂Te, Bi₂SeTe₂ and Bi₂Te₃, were collected at four different excitation photon energies (2.54, 2.41, 1.96, and 1.58 eV). It is found that the vibrational modes are shifted to higher frequency with more Se incorporation towards the replacement of Te. The dependence of Raman vibrational modes on excitation photon energy was investigated. As the excitation photon energy increases, three Raman vibrational modes (A1g¹, Eg² and A1g²) of the as-produced compounds move to low frequency. Three Infrared-active (IR-active) modes were observed in thin topological insulators (TIs) crystals.