A high quality inclusion-free Bi2Se3 crystal has been grown by the Bridgman method with the use of a rotating heat field. A large-area atomically flat Bi2Se3(0001) surface of excellent crystallographic quality has been formed by cleavage. Chemical and microstructural properties of the surface have been evaluated with reflection high-energy electron diffraction, atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), spectroscopic ellipsometry, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. There was no Bi2Se3(0001) surface oxidation detected after over a month in air under ambient conditions as shown by comparative core level spectroscopy, AFM, and STM.

A Bi2Te3 single crystal is grown with the modified Bridgman technique. The crystal has a nominal composition with a Te content of 61 mol% resulting in the existence of two distinct regions, p- and n-doped, respectively; color-coded tunneling spectra are taken over 60 nm at the transition region.

Inertness of the cleaved (0001) surface of the Bi2Se3 single crystal, grown by modified Bridgman method, to oxidation has been demonstrated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and by ab initio DFT calculations. No intrinsic bismuth and selenium oxides are formed on the low-defect, atomically flat Bi2Se3(0001)-(1×1) surface after a long-time air exposure. The inertness of Bi2Se3(0001) to O2 and NO2, as well as bismuth-oxygen bonding formation under molecular adsorption in the Se vacancy was supported by DFT calculations.

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