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Title: Strain-induced partially flat band, helical snake states and interface superconductivity in topological crystalline insulators

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/NPHYS3109· OSTI ID:1557721
 [1];  [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Topological crystalline insulators in IV–VI compounds host novel topological surface states consisting of multi-valley massless Dirac fermions at low energy. Here we show that strain generically acts as an effective gauge field on these Dirac fermions and creates pseudo-Landau orbitals without breaking time-reversal symmetry. We predict the realization of this phenomenon in IV–VI semiconductor heterostructures, due to a naturally occurring misfit dislocation array at the interface that produces a periodically varying strain field. Remarkably, the zero-energy Landau orbitals form a flat band in the vicinity of the Dirac point, and coexist with a network of snake states at higher energy. We propose that the high density of states of this flat band gives rise to interface superconductivity observed in IV–VI semiconductor multilayers at unusually high temperatures, with non-Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer behaviour. Here, our work demonstrates a new route to altering macroscopic electronic properties to achieve a partially flat band, and provides a starting point for realizing novel correlated states of matter.

Research Organization:
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0010526
OSTI ID:
1557721
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 12; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 160 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (40)

Strain-induced gauge and Rashba fields in ferroelectric Rashba lead chalcogenide Pb X monolayers ( X = S , Se, Te) journal June 2018
Superfluidity in topologically nontrivial flat bands journal November 2015
Electronic and optical properties of strained graphene and other strained 2D materials: a review journal August 2017
Enhancement of the anisotropic thermoelectric power factor of topological crystalline insulator SnTe and related alloys via external perturbations journal January 2019
Quasiparticle interference on type-I and type-II Weyl semimetal surfaces: a review journal January 2018
Realization of a New Topological Crystalline Insulator and Lifshitz Transition in PbTe journal July 2018
Strain engineering Dirac surface states in heteroepitaxial topological crystalline insulator thin films journal August 2015
From Standard Model of particle physics to room-temperature superconductivity text January 2014
Superfluidity in topologically nontrivial flat bands text January 2015
Strain-induced gauge and Rashba fields in ferroelectric Rashba lead chalcogenide PbX monolayers (X = S, Se, Te) text January 2018
Band gap engineering of a soft inorganic compound PbI 2 by incommensurate van der Waals epitaxy journal January 2016
Topological properties of multilayers and surface steps in the SnTe material class text January 2018
Topological phase diagram and saddle point singularity in a tunable topological crystalline insulator text January 2015
Quasiparticle interference on type-I and type-II Weyl semimetal surfaces: a review text January 2018
Observation of quincunx-shaped and dipole-like flatband states in photonic rhombic lattices without band-touching journal January 2020
Topological phase transition and highly tunable topological transport in topological crystalline insulator Pb 1− x Sn x Te (111) thin films journal April 2019
Interplay of orbital effects and nanoscale strain in topological crystalline insulators text January 2016
Theory of interacting topological crystalline insulators text January 2015
Topological Crystalline Insulator and Quantum Anomalous Hall States in IV-VI based Monolayers and their Quantum Wells text January 2015
Surface superconductivity in a three-dimensional Cd 3 As 2 semimetal at the interface with a gold contact journal March 2019
Pseudo-electromagnetic fields in 3D topological semimetals journal November 2019
Designing Flat Band by Strain text January 2019
Interplay of orbital effects and nanoscale strain in topological crystalline insulators journal April 2018
Double-Gated Nanohelix as a Novel Tunable Binary Superlattice journal August 2019
Dual topological insulator and insulator-semimetal transition in mirror-symmetric honeycomb materials journal November 2019
Perfect transmission and Aharanov-Bohm oscillations in topological insulator nanowires with nonuniform cross section journal January 2020
Perfect transmission and Aharanov-Bohm oscillations in topological insulator nanowires with nonuniform cross section text January 2017
Competition of electron-phonon mediated superconductivity and Stoner magnetism on a flat band text January 2018
Thermal transport properties of GaN with biaxial strain and electron-phonon coupling journal January 2020
Optoelectronic devices, plasmonics and photonics with topological insulators preprint January 2019
Tailoring of Electronic Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of a Topological Crystalline Insulator by Chemical Doping journal October 2015
A methodical study of quantum phase engineering in topological crystalline insulator SnTe and related alloys journal January 2019
Unconventional Magnetization below 25 K in Nitrogen-doped Diamond provides hints for the existence of Superconductivity and Superparamagnetism journal June 2019
Strain engineering of valley polarized currents in topological crystalline insulators journal May 2019
Topological properties of multilayers and surface steps in the SnTe material class journal September 2019
Optoelectronic devices, plasmonics, and photonics with topological insulators journal March 2017
Interfacial Superconductivity on the Topological Semimetal Tungsten Carbide Induced by Metal Deposition journal February 2020
Lateral topological crystalline insulator heterostructure journal February 2017
Canonical pair condensation in a flat-band BCS superconductor journal June 2019
Giant Rashba Splitting in Pb 1- x Sn x Te (111) Topological Crystalline Insulator Films Controlled by Bi Doping in the Bulk journal November 2016

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