Band inversion mechanism in topological insulators: A guideline for materials design
- 1 June 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 85 (23), 235401
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.85.235401
Abstract
Alteration of the topological order by band inversion is a key ingredient of a topologically nontrivial material. Using first-principles calculations for HgTe, PtScBi, and BiSe, we argue that it is not accurate to ascribe the band inversion to the spin-orbit coupling. Instead, scalar relativistic effects and/or lattice distortions are found to be essential. Therefore, the search for topologically nontrivial materials should focus on band shifts due to these mechanisms rather than spin-orbit coupling. We propose an effective scheme to search for new topological insulators.
Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Topological insulators and superconductorsReviews of Modern Physics, 2011
- Colloquium: Topological insulatorsReviews of Modern Physics, 2010
- Half-Heusler Compounds as a New Class of Three-Dimensional Topological InsulatorsPhysical Review Letters, 2010
- Half-Heusler ternary compounds as new multifunctional experimental platforms for topological quantum phenomenaNature Materials, 2010
- Tunable multifunctional topological insulators in ternary Heusler compoundsNature Materials, 2010
- Topological insulators in Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 with a single Dirac cone on the surfaceNature Physics, 2009
- Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum WellsScience, 2007
- Topological insulators with inversion symmetryPhysical Review B, 2007
- Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum WellsScience, 2006
- New Method for High-Accuracy Determination of the Fine-Structure Constant Based on Quantized Hall ResistancePhysical Review Letters, 1980