Modulation of Dirac electrons in epitaxial BiSe ultrathin films on van der Waals ferromagnet CrSiTe

Kato, Takemi*; Sugawara, Katsuaki*; Ito, Naohiro*; Yamauchi, Kunihiko*; Sato, Takumi*; Oguchi, Tamio*; Takahashi, Takashi*; Shiomi, Yuki*; Saito, Eiji; Sato, Takafumi*

We investigated the Dirac-cone state and its modulation when an ultrathin film of topological insulator BiSe was epitaxially grown on a van der Waals ferromagnet CrSiTe (CST) by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. We observed a gapless Dirac-cone surface state in six quintuple-layer (6QL) BiSe on CST, whereas the Dirac cone exhibits a gap of 0.37 eV in its 2QL counterpart. Intriguingly, this gap is much larger than those for BiSe films on Si(111). We also revealed no discernible change in the gap magnitude across the ferromagnetic transition of CST, suggesting the very small characteristic length and energy scale of the magnetic proximity effect. The present results suggest a crucial role of interfacial coupling for modulating Dirac electrons in topological-insulator hybrids.