Transition metal oxides with a wide variety of electronic and magnetic properties offer an extraordinary possibility to be a platform for developing future electronics based on unconventional quantum phenomena, for instance, the topology. The formation of topologically non-trivial states is related to crystalline symmetry, spin-orbit coupling, and magnetic ordering. Here, we demonstrate how lattice distortions and octahedral rotation in SrNbO3 films induce the band topology. By employing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we verify the presence of in-phase a0a0c+ octahedral rotation in ultra-thin SrNbO3 films, which causes the formation of topologically-protected Dirac band crossings. Our study illustrates that octahedral engineering can be effectively exploited for implanting and controlling quantum topological phases in transition metal oxides.
@article{arxiv.2311.06072,
title = {Provoking topology by octahedral tilting in strained SrNbO$_3$},
author = {Alla Chikina and Victor Rosendal and Hang Li and Eduardo B. Guedes and Marco Caputo and Nicholas Clark Plumb and Ming Shi and Dirch Hjorth Petersen and Mads Brandbyge and Walber Hugo Brito and Ekaterina Pomjakushina and Valerio Scagnoli and Jike Lyu and Marisa Medarde and Elizabeth Skoropata and Urs Staub and Shih-Wen Huang and Felix Baumberger and Nini Pryds and Milan Radovic},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.06072},
year = {2023}
}