Combining graphene with other novel layered materials is a possible way for engineering the band structure of charge carriers. Strong spin-orbit coupling in BiTeX compounds and the recent fabrication of a single layer of BiTeI points towards a feasible experimental realization of a Kane--Mele phase in graphene-based heterostructures. Here, we theoretically demonstrate the tunability of the topological phase of hybrid systems built from graphene and BiTeX (X = I, Br, Cl) layers by uniaxial in-plane tensile and out-of plane compressive strain. We show that structural stress inherently present in fabricated samples could induce a topological phase transition, thus turning the sample in a novel experimental realization of a time reversal invariant topological insulator.
@article{arxiv.1910.07418,
title = {Topological Phase Diagram of BiTeX--Graphene Hybrid Structures},
author = {Zoltán Tajkov and Dávid Visontai and László Oroszlány and János Koltai},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.07418},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
7 pages, 2 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1903.00387