Over the past decades, two-dimensional crystals have attracted considerable interest as promising materials for electronic and optoelectronic applications. Among them, graphene analogs composed of heavy atoms occupy a particularly distinctive niche due to their enhanced spin-orbit interaction. Here, we present an epitaxial heterointerface formed by beta-bismuthene on Sb2Te3, a well-known three-dimensional topological insulator. Using scanning tunneling microscopy, we systematically investigated the effects of Bi coverage and substrate temperature on nucleation processes, island morphology, and atomic structure. In addition, substrate-induced defects were identified throughout the bismuthene lattice.
@article{arxiv.2605.07700,
title = {Epitaxial growth of beta-bismuthene on Sb2Te3},
author = {Giorgia Sementilli and Arslan Masood and Fabio Ronci and Stefano Colonna and Marilena Carbone and Marco Papagno and Ziya S. Aliev and Evgueni V. Chulkov and Sergey V. Eremeev and and Roberto Flammini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.07700},
year = {2026}
}