Fig. 1

Crystallographic details of Bi₂Te₃ and the dislocation. a Atomic arrangements in Bi₂Te₃. The space between the Te⁽¹⁾:Te⁽¹⁾ planes is the van der Waals gap. b Projection of the structure on the basal plane showing the Burgers vectors of dislocations. The unit cell is shaded in blue. The heavy black arrows show the Burgers vectors for the \(\frac{1}{3}\left\langle {2\bar 1\bar 10} \right\rangle\) -type perfect-lattice dislocations, whereas the smaller orange arrows show the \(\frac{1}{3}\left\langle {10\bar 10} \right\rangle\) -type Burgers vectors that would result if Shockley partial dislocations were to form. c Orientation of the Cartesian axes relative to the dislocation line. d High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) image of Bi₂Te₃ projected along 〈21̄1̄0〉 direction, showing the quintuple layers and the Burgers circuit construction for calculation of the dislocation Burgers vector (see Supplementary Note 2 for detail). The basal planes are horizontal and the yellow lines trace {101̄5} crystal planes, one of which terminates at the dislocation core. The scale bar represents 2 nm