High quality PdTe₂ thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy

PdTe₂, a member of layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), has aroused significant research interest due to the coexistence of superconductivity and type-Ⅱ Dirac fermions. It provides a promising platform to explore the interplay between superconducting quasiparticles and Dirac fermions. Moreover, PdTe₂ has also been used as a substrate for monolayer antimonene growth. Here in this paper, we report the epitaxial growth of high quality PdTe₂ films on bilayer graphene/SiC(0001) by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Atomically thin films are characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), and Raman spectroscopy. The band structure of 6-layer PdTe₂ film is measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Moreover, our air exposure experiments show excellent chemical stability of epitaxial PdTe₂ film. High-quality PdTe₂ films provide opportunities to build antimonene/PdTe₂ heterostructure in ultrahigh vacuum for future applications in electronic and optoelectronic nanodevices.