Large-scale synthesis and electrical transport properties of single-crystalline SmB6 nanowires

Topological Kondo insulator samarium hexaboride (SmB6) nanowires, with diameters of 60–150 nm and lengths up to 1–5 μm, were successfully synthesized in large scale by chemical vapor deposition using BCl3 and SmCl3 as precursors at 1070 °C. Transmission electron microscopy observation and selected area electron diffraction analysis indicate that SmB6 nanowires are single-crystalline and grow in a preferred direction of [1 0 0]. It also indicates that the growth of SmB6 nanowires might be governed by a vapor–solid mechanism. Conventional four-terminal resistance measurements show that the resistance of an SmB6 nanowire increases with decreasing temperature, but saturates at temperatures less than 10 K, which might be attributed to a true topological insulator with a metallic surface and fully insulating bulk states. Resistance measurements also indicate that the contribution of surface states to conductance in the SmB6 nanowire is enhanced remarkably; therefore the high-quality single-crystalline SmB6 nanowires with large surface-to-bulk ratio might be the best candidate for investigating the topological properties of this material.