Gating the charge state of single Fe dopants in the topological insulator Bi ₂Se ₃ with a scanning tunneling microscope

Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is exploited to study directly the atomic and electronic structures of single Fe dopants in topological insulator Bi ₂Se ₃ thin films. Fe atoms predominantly and isovalently substitute for two distinct Bi sites at the subsurface with charge neutrality. In the vicinity of Fe substitutions, circular depressions in STM topography and sharp rings in spatially resolved conductance map, whose diameters apparently depend on the tunneling conditions, are observed. We show that the phenomena correlate well with the switching between Fe3 ⁺ and Fe2 ⁺ charge states due to the gate effect of the tunneling tip, as further evidenced by a multidopant system.