Spin texture on the Fermi surface of tensile strained HgTe

Abstract

We present ab initio and k.p calculations of the spin texture on the Fermi surface of tensile strained HgTe, which is obtained by stretching the zincblende lattice along the (111) axis. Tensile strained HgTe is a semimetal with pointlike accidental degeneracies between a mirror symmetry protected twofold degenerate band and two nondegenerate bands near the Fermi level. The Fermi surface consists of two ellipsoids which contact at the point where the Fermi level crosses the twofold degenerate band along the (111) axis. However, the spin texture of occupied states indicates that neither ellipsoid carries a compensating Chern number. Consequently, the spin texture is locked in the plane perpendicular to the (111) axis, exhibits a nonzero winding number in that plane, and changes winding number from one end of the Fermi ellipsoids to the other. The change in the winding of the spin texture suggests the existence of singular points. An ordered alloy of HgTe with ZnTe has the same effect as stretching the zincblende lattice in the (111) direction. We present ab initio calculations of ordered Hg_xZn_1-xTe that confirm the existence of a spin texture locked in a 2D plane on the Fermi surface with different winding numbers on either end.

arXiv comment8 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Electronic Structure of Pyrochlore Iridates: From Topological Dirac Metal to Mott Insulator
• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Weyl Semimetal in a Topological Insulator Multilayer
• Dirac semimetal in three dimensions
• Quantum Hall effects in a Weyl Semi-Metal: possible application in pyrochlore Iridates
• Computing topological invariants without inversion symmetry

Cited by in corpus (31)

• Triple Point Topological Metals
• Topological Semimetals with Triply Degenerate Nodal Points in θ-phase Tantalum Nitride
• Symmetry-protected ideal Weyl semimetal in HgTe-class materials
• Quadratic Fermi Node in a 3D Strongly Correlated Semimetal
• First Principles Calculations for Topological Quantum Materials
• Topological Thermoelectricity in Metals
• Topological Phases in InAs${}_{1-x}$Sb${}_x$: From Novel Topological Semimetal to Majorana Wire
• Prediction of triple point fermions in simple half-Heusler topological insulators
• The centrosymmetric Li2NaN material: an ideal topological semimetal with critical-type triply degenerate nodal points
• Topological Crystalline Insulator Nanomembrane with Strain-Tunable Band Gap
• Tensile Strained Gray Tin: a New Dirac Semimetal for Observing Negative Magnetoresistance with Shubnikov-de-Haas Oscillation
• Quaternary Heusler Alloy: An Ideal Platform to Realize Triple Point Fermion
• Coexistence of New Fermions in Topological Semimetal TaS
• Prediction of Ideal Topological Semimetals with Triply Degenerate Points in NaCu${}_3$Te${}_2$ Family
• Topology of Triple-Point Metals
• Survey of the class of isovalent antiperovskite alkaline earth-pnictide compounds
• Growth and Magnetotransport in Thin Film α-Sn on CdTe
• Coexistence of nontrivial topological properties and strong ferromagnetic fluctuations in $A_2$Cr${}_3$As${}_3$ ($A$=Na, K, Rb and Cs)
• Phonon softening near topological phase transitions
• Strain engineered higher order topological phases for spin-3/2 Luttinger fermions
• Triple point fermions in ferroelectric GeTe
• Topological states in superlattices of HgTe-class materials for engineering three-dimensional flat bands
• Broken symmetry driven topological semi-metal to gaped phase transitions in SrAgAs
• Weyl nodal point-line Fermion in ferromagnetic Eu${}_5$Bi${}_3$
• BaSn${}_2$: A new, wide-gap, strong topological insulator
• Self-consistent $\text{k}\cdot \text{p}$ calculations for gated thin layers of 3D Topological Insulators
• Prediction of Ideal Triple Degenerate Points in HfIrAs and HfIrBi
• Systematic analysis for triple points in all magnetic symmorphic systems and symmetry-allowed coexistence of Dirac points and triple points
• Large Spontaneous Hall Effects in Chiral Topological Magnets
• Optical conductivity of triple point fermions
• Kondo Compensation in a Pseudogap Phase: a Renormalization Group Study