Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userA general route to form topologically-protected surface and bulk Dirac fermions along high-symmetry lines
235
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
The band
rate research
Read More
Topological insulators (TIs) are a new class of matter characterized by the unique electronic properties of an insulating bulk and metallic boundaries arising from non-trivial bulk band topology. While the surfaces of TIs have been well studied, the interface between TIs and semiconductors may not only be more technologically relevant but the interaction with non-topological states may fundamentally alter the physics. Here, we present a general model to show that such an interaction can lead to spin-momentum locked non-topological states, the Dirac cone can split in two, and the particle-hole symmetry can be fundamentally broken, along with their possible ramifications. Unlike magnetic doping or alloying, these phenomena occur without topological transitions or the breaking of time reversal symmetry. The model results are corroborated by first-principles calculations of the technologically relevant Bi$_2$Se$_3$ film van der Waals bound to a Se-treated GaAs substrate.
We report the realization of novel symmetry-protected Dirac fermions in a surface-doped two-dimensional (2D) semiconductor, black phosphorus. The widely tunable band gap of black phosphorus by the surface Stark effect is employed to achieve a surprisingly large band inversion up to ~0.6 eV. High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectra directly reveal the pair creation of Dirac points and their moving along the axis of the glide-mirror symmetry. Unlike graphene, the Dirac point of black phosphorus is stable, as protected by spacetime inversion symmetry, even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Our results establish black phosphorus in the inverted regime as a simple model system of 2D symmetry-protected (topological) Dirac semimetals, offering an unprecedented opportunity for the discovery of 2D Weyl semimetals.
We proposed that BaHgSn is a Dirac semimetal (DSM) which can host hourglass-like surface states (HSSs) as protected by nonsymmorphic glide symmetry. Compared to KHgSb, an isostructural topological crystalline insulator with the same HSSs, BaHgSn has an additional band inversion at $Gamma$ point. This band inversion is induced by the stronger interlayer coupling among Hg-Sn honeycomb layers than that among Hg-Sb-layers in KHgSb, which leads to bulk Dirac nodes in BaHgSn along the layer stacking direction $Gamma$-$A$. In addition, the mirror Chern number $C_{i}$ protected by the mirror plane $overline{M}_{z}$ ($k_z$=0) changes from 2 in KHgSb to 3 in BaHgSn. Therefore, when a compressive uniaxial strain is applied along the $y$ axis to break the rotation symmetry protecting the DSM state, BaHgSn becomes a strong topological insulator with $Z_{2}$ indices of $(1;000)$ and the topological surface Dirac cone co-exists with HSSs on the (010) surface. The Wilson-loop spectra have been calculated to verify these topological features. The calculated surface states, the Fermi surfaces and their quasiparticle interference patterns are ready to be compared with experimental measurements.
Dirac nodal line semimetals (DNLSs) host relativistic quasiparticles in their one-dimensional (1D) Dirac nodal line (DNL) bands that are protected by certain crystalline symmetries. Their novel low-energy fermion quasiparticle excitations and transport properties invite studies of relativistic physics in the solid state where their linearly dispersing Dirac bands cross at continuous lines with four-fold degeneracy. In materials studied up to now, the four-fold degeneracy, however, has been vulnerable to suppression by the ubiquitous spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Despite the current effort to discover 3D DNLSs that are robust to SOC by theory, positive experimental evidence is yet to emerge. In 2D DNLSs, because of the decreased total density of states as compared with their 3D counterparts, it is anticipated that their physical properties would be dominated by the electronic states defined by the DNL. It has been even more challenging, however, to discover robust 2D DNLSs against SOC because of their lowered symmetry; no such materials have yet been predicted by theory. By combining molecular beam epitaxy growth, STM, nc-AFM characterisation, with DFT calculations and space group theory analysis, here we reveal a novel class of 2D crystalline DNLSs that host the exact symmetry that protects them against SOC. The discovered quantum material is a brick phase 3-AL Bi(110), whose symmetry protection and thermal stability are imparted by the compressive vdW epitaxial growth on black phosphorus substrates. The BP substrate templates the growth of 3-AL Bi(110) nano-islands in a non-symmorphic space group structure. This crystalline symmetry protects the DNL electronic phase against SOC independent of any orbital or elemental factors. We theoretically establish that this intrinsic symmetry imparts a general, robust protection of DNL in a series of isostructural 2D quantum materials.
The symmetry-indicators provide valuable information about the topological properties of band structures in real materials. For inversion-symmetric, non-magnetic materials, the pattern of parity eigenvalues of various Kramers-degenerate bands at the time-reversal-invariant momentum points are generally analyzed with the combination of strong $Z_4$, and weak $Z_2$ indices. Can the symmetry indicators identify the tunneling configurations of SU(2) Berry connections or the three-dimensional, winding numbers of topologically non-trivial bands? In this work, we perform detailed analytical and numerical calculations on various effective tight-binding models to answer this question. If the parity eigenvalues are regarded as fictitious Ising spins, located at the vertices of Miller hypercube, the strong $Z_4$ index describes the net ferro-magnetic moment, which is shown to be inadequate for identifying non-trivial bands, supporting even integer winding numbers. We demonstrate that an anti-ferromagnetic index, measuring the staggered magnetization can distinguish between bands possessing zero, odd, and even integer winding numbers. The coarse-grained analysis of symmetry-indicators is substantiated by computing the change in rotational-symmetry-protected, quantized Berry flux and Wilson loops along various high-symmetry axes. By simultaneously computing ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic indices, we categorize various bands of bismuth, antimony, rhombohedral phosphorus, and Bi$_2$Se$_3$.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
