Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class
Topological crystalline insulators are new states of matter in which the topological nature of electronic structures arises from crystal symmetries. Here we predict the first material realization of topological crystalline insulator in the semiconductor SnTe by identifying its non-zero topological i...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Nature Publishing Group
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76715 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-7349 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266 |
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| author | Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Lin, Hsin Lui, Junwei Duan, Wenhui Bansil, Arun Fu, Liang |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Lin, Hsin Lui, Junwei Duan, Wenhui Bansil, Arun Fu, Liang |
| author_sort | Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Topological crystalline insulators are new states of matter in which the topological nature of electronic structures arises from crystal symmetries. Here we predict the first material realization of topological crystalline insulator in the semiconductor SnTe by identifying its non-zero topological index. We predict that as a manifestation of this non-trivial topology, SnTe has metallic surface states with an even number of Dirac cones on high-symmetry crystal surfaces such as {001}, {110} and {111}. These surface states form a new type of high-mobility chiral electron gas, which is robust against disorder and topologically protected by reflection symmetry of the crystal with respect to {110} mirror plane. Breaking this mirror symmetry via elastic strain engineering or applying an in-plane magnetic field can open up a continuously tunable band gap on the surface, which may lead to wide-ranging applications in thermoelectrics, infra-red detection and tunable electronics. Closely related semiconductors PbTe and PbSe also become topological crystalline insulators after band inversion by pressure, strain and alloying. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:04:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/76715 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T16:04:24Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/767152022-09-29T18:01:49Z Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Lin, Hsin Lui, Junwei Duan, Wenhui Bansil, Arun Fu, Liang Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Liu, Junwei Fu, Liang Topological crystalline insulators are new states of matter in which the topological nature of electronic structures arises from crystal symmetries. Here we predict the first material realization of topological crystalline insulator in the semiconductor SnTe by identifying its non-zero topological index. We predict that as a manifestation of this non-trivial topology, SnTe has metallic surface states with an even number of Dirac cones on high-symmetry crystal surfaces such as {001}, {110} and {111}. These surface states form a new type of high-mobility chiral electron gas, which is robust against disorder and topologically protected by reflection symmetry of the crystal with respect to {110} mirror plane. Breaking this mirror symmetry via elastic strain engineering or applying an in-plane magnetic field can open up a continuously tunable band gap on the surface, which may lead to wide-ranging applications in thermoelectrics, infra-red detection and tunable electronics. Closely related semiconductors PbTe and PbSe also become topological crystalline insulators after band inversion by pressure, strain and alloying. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Graduate Research Fellowship number 0645960) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (start-up funds from MIT) United States. Dept. of Energy (Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, Grant number DE-FG02-07ER46352) Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (No. 2011CB921901) Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China (No. 2011CB606405) National Natural Science Foundation (China) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Grant number DMR-1005541) 2013-02-01T19:29:40Z 2013-02-01T19:29:40Z 2012-07 2012-02 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76715 Hsieh, Timothy H. et al. “Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class.” Nature Communications 3 (2012): 982. Web. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-7349 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms1969 Nature Communications Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Nature Publishing Group arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Hsieh, Timothy Hwa-wei Lin, Hsin Lui, Junwei Duan, Wenhui Bansil, Arun Fu, Liang Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title | Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title_full | Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title_fullStr | Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title_full_unstemmed | Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title_short | Topological Crystalline Insulators in the SnTe Material Class |
| title_sort | topological crystalline insulators in the snte material class |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/76715 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8803-1017 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8051-7349 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8187-7266 |
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