Weak topological insulators in PbTe/SnTe superlattices

Yang, Gang; Liu, Junwei; Fu, Liang; Duan, Wenhui; Liu, Chaoxing

doi:10.1103/physrevb.89.085312

Title: Weak topological insulators in PbTe/SnTe superlattices

Journal Article · Mon Feb 24 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.89.085312· OSTI ID:1505751

Yang, Gang ^[1]; Liu, Junwei ^[2]; Fu, Liang ^[3]; Duan, Wenhui ^[2]; Liu, Chaoxing ^[4]

The Pennsylvania State Univ., State College, PA (United States); Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (People's Republic of China)
Tsinghua Univ., Beijing (People's Republic of China)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
The Pennsylvania State Univ., State College, PA (United States)

It is desirable to realize topological phases in artificial structures by engineering electronic band structures. In this paper we investigate (PbTe)_m(SnTe)_2n–m superlattices along the [001] direction and find a robust weak topological insulator phase for a large variety of layer numbers m and 2n–m. We confirm this topologically nontrivial phase by calculating Z₂ topological invariants and topological surface states based on the first-principles calculations. We show that the folding of Brillouin zone due to the superlattice structure plays an essential role in inducing topologically nontrivial phases in this system. This mechanism can be generalized to other systems in which band inversion occurs at multiple momenta, and gives us a brand new way to engineer topological materials in artificial structures.

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Research Organization:: Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010526

OSTI ID:: 1505751

Journal Information:: Physical Review. B, Condensed Matter and Materials Physics, Vol. 89, Issue 8; ISSN 1098-0121

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 39 works

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