Phase transition between the quantum spin Hall and insulator phases in 3D: emergence of a topological gapless phase

Abstract

Phase transitions between the quantum spin Hall and the insulator phases in three dimensions are studied. We find that in inversion-asymmetric systems there appears a gapless phase between the quantum spin Hall and insulator phases in three dimensions, which is in contrast with the two-dimensional case. Existence of this gapless phase stems from a topological nature of gapless points (diabolical points) in three dimensions, but not in two dimensions.

16 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature
• The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems
• Strong spin-orbit splitting on Bi surfaces

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Tuning phase transition between quantum spin Hall and ordinary insulating phases
• Universal phase diagrams for the quantum spin Hall systems