It is desirable to realize topological phases in artificial structures by engineering electronic band structures. In this paper, we investigate (PbTe)m(SnTe)2n−m superlattices along [001] direction and find a robust weak topological insulator phase for a large variety of layer numbers m and 2n-m. We confirm this topologically non-trivial phase by calculating Z2 topological invariants and topological surface states based on the first-principles calculations. We show that the folding of Brillouin zone due to the superlattice structure plays an essential role in inducing topologically non-trivial phases in this system. This mechanism can be generalized to other systems in which band inversion occurs at multiple momenta, and gives us a brand-new way to engineer topological materials in artificial structures.
@article{arxiv.1309.7932,
title = {Weak Topological Insulators in PbTe/SnTe Superlattices},
author = {Gang Yang and Junwei Liu and Liang Fu and Wenhui Duan and Chaoxing Liu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.7932},
year = {2014}
}