Related papers: Topo-electronic transitions in Sb(111) nanofilm: t…
We report on fabrication of a two-dimensional topological insulator-Bi(111) bilayer on Sb nanofilms via a sequential molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth technique. Our angle-resolved photoemission measurements demonstrate the evolution of…
Antimony (Sb), an element with strong spin-orbit coupling, is predicted to undergo a topological phase transition from a topological semimetal to a topological insulator as its dimensionality approaches the two-dimensional limit, driven by…
Recently, the quantum spin Hall effect has been predicted in (111)-oriented thin films of SnSe and SnTe topological crystalline insulators. It was shown that in these films the energy gaps in the two-dimensional band spectrum depend in an…
Large-gap quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulators were previously predicted in stanene and its derivatives. Beyond stanene that is the thinnest $\alpha$-Sn(111) film, we propose to explore QSH insulators in $\alpha$-Sn films with different…
The emergence of quantization at the nanoscale, the quantum size effect (QSE), allows flexible control of matter and is a rich source of advanced functionalities. A QSE-induced transition into an insulating phase in semimetallic nanofilms…
Based on a combination of $k \cdot p$ theory, band topology analysis and electronic structure calculations, we predict the (111) thin films of the SnTe class of three-dimensional (3D) topological crystalline insulators realize the quantum…
Surfaces are at the frontier of every known solid. They provide versatile supports for functional nanostructures and mediate essential physicochemical processes. Being intimately related with 2D materials, interfaces and atomically thin…
We show that the Quantum Spin Hall Effect, a state of matter with topological properties distinct from conventional insulators, can be realized in HgTe/CdTe semiconductor quantum wells. By varying the thickness of the quantum well, the…
Thin films of rare-earth monopnictide semimetals are expected to turn into semiconductors due to quantum confinement effect, which lifts the overlap between electron pockets at Brillouin zone edges and hole pockets at the zone center.…
Despite many years of efforts, attempts to reach the quantum regime of topological surface states (TSS) on an electrically tunable topological insulator (TI) platform have so far failed on binary TI compounds such as Bi2Se3 due to high…
We envision that quantum spin Hall effect should be observed in $(111)$-oriented thin films of SnSe and SnTe topological crystalline insulators. Using a tight-binding approach supported by first-principles calculations of the band…
We investigate the effect of a vertical electric field on a Dirac semimetal thin film. We show that through the interplay between the quantum confinement effect and the field-induced coupling between sub-bands, the sub-band gap can be tuned…
Physical phenomena driven by topological properties, such as the quantum Hall effect, have the appealing feature to be robust with respect to external perturbations. Lately, a new class of materials has emerged manifesting their topological…
The search for topologically non-trivial states of matter has become an important goal for condensed matter physics. Recently, a new class of topological insulators has been proposed. These topological insulators have an insulating gap in…
Three-dimensional (3D) topological insulators (TIs) are known to carry 2D Dirac-like topological surface states in which spin-momentum locking prohibits backscattering. When thinned down to a few nanometers, the hybridization between the…
Topological insulators are novel quantum materials with metallic surface transport, but insulating bulk behavior. Often, topological insulators are dominated by bulk contributions due to defect induced bulk carriers, making it difficult to…
Quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect with great promise for the potential application in spintronics and quantum computing has attracted extensive research interest from both theoretical and experimental researchers. Here, we predict monolayer…
We have investigated the structures and electronic properties of ultra-thin Bi(110) films grown on an s-wave superconductor substrate using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Remarkably, our experimental results…
Material defects remain as the main bottleneck to the progress of topological insulators (TIs). In particular, efforts to achieve thin TI samples with dominant surface transport have always led to increased defects and degraded mobilities,…
Understanding the spin-texture behavior of boundary modes in ultrathin topological insulator films is critically essential for the design and fabrication of functional nano-devices. Here by using spin-resolved photoemission spectroscopy…