Gapless Dirac surface states are protected at the interface of topological and normal band insulators. In a binary superlattice bearing such interfaces, we establish that valley-dependent dimerization of symmetry-unrelated Dirac surface states can be exploited to induce topological quantum phase transitions. This mechanism leads to a rich phase diagram that allows us to design strong, weak, and crystalline topological insulators. Our ab initio simulations further demonstrate this mechanism in [111] and [110] superlattices of calcium and tin tellurides.
@article{arxiv.1310.6598,
title = {Designer Topological Insulators in Superlattices},
author = {Xiao Li and Fan Zhang and Qian Niu and Ji Feng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1310.6598},
year = {2014}
}