Related papers: Designer quantum spin Hall phase transition in mol…
Large-gap quantum spin Hall insulators are promising materials for room-temperature applications based on Dirac fermions. Key to engineer the topologically non-trivial band ordering and sizable band gaps is strong spin-orbit interaction.…
Research on graphene has revealed remarkable phenomena arising in the honeycomb lattice. However, the quantum spin Hall effect predicted at the K point could not be observed in graphene and other honeycomb structures of light elements due…
Graphene, the atomic-thin layer of carbon atoms, was first isolated on an insulating substrate in 2004 by two groups in Manchester University [1, 2] and Columbia [3]. Those milestone experiments established the Dirac nature of the charge…
We develop a robust, non-perturbative approach to study the band structure of artificial graphene. Artificial graphene, as considered here, is generated by imposing a superlattice structure on top of a two dimensional hole gas in a…
Artificial honeycomb lattices offer a tunable platform to study massless Dirac quasiparticles and their topological and correlated phases. Here we review recent progress in the design and fabrication of such synthetic structures focusing on…
While the experimental progress on three dimensional topological insulators is rapid, the development of their two dimensional counterparts has been comparatively slow, despite their technological promise. The main reason is materials…
Commonly materials are classified as either electrical conductors or insulators. The theoretical discovery of topological insulators (TIs) in 2005 has fundamentally challenged this dichotomy. In a TI, spin-orbit interaction generates a…
The quantum spin Hall insulator bismuthene, a two-third monolayer of bismuth on SiC(0001), is distinguished by helical metallic edge states that are protected by a groundbreaking 800 meV topological gap, making it ideal for room temperature…
Graphene, a two-dimensional crystal made of carbon atoms, provides a new and unexpected bridge between low and high-energy physics. The field has evolved very fast and very good reviews are already available in the literature. Graphene…
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…
In principle the stacking of different two-dimensional (2D) materials allows the construction of 3D systems with entirely new electronic properties. Here we propose to realize topological crystalline insulators (TCI) protected by mirror…
Realization of the quantum-spin-Hall effect in graphene devices has remained an outstanding challenge dating back to the inception of the field of topological insulators. Graphene's exceptionally weak spin-orbit coupling -stemming from…
The 2007 discovery of quantized conductance in HgTe quantum wells delivered the field of topological insulators (TIs) its first experimental confirmation. While many three-dimensional TIs have since been identified, HgTe remains the only…
Graphene is famous for being a host of 2D Dirac fermions. However, spin-orbit coupling introduces a small gap, so that graphene is formally a quantum spin hall insulator. Here we present symmetry-protected 2D Dirac semimetals, which feature…
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…
Motivated by recent experimental breakthroughs, we propose a strategy to design two-dimensional spin lattices with competing interactions that lead to non-trivial emergent quantum states. We consider $S=1/2$ nanographenes with $C_3$…
Silicene is a monolayer of silicon atoms forming a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice, which shares almost every remarkable property with graphene. The low energy structure of silicene is described by Dirac electrons with relatively large…
The so called quantum spin Hall phase is a topologically non trivial insulating phase that is predicted to appear in graphene and graphene-like systems. In this work we address the question of whether this topological property persists in…
The honeycomb lattice sets the basic arena for numerous ideas to implement electronic, photonic, or phononic topological bands in (meta-)materials. Novel opportunities to manipulate Dirac electrons in graphene through band engineering arise…
Graphitic nanostructures, e.g. carbon nanotubes (CNT) and graphene, have been proposed as ideal materials for spin conduction[1-7]; they have long electronic mean free paths[8] and small spin-orbit coupling[9], hence are expected to have…