Quantum spin Hall insulators in centrosymmetric thin films composed from topologically trivial BiTeI trilayers

Abstract

The quantum spin Hall insulators predicted ten years ago and now experimentally observed are instrumental for a breakthrough in nanoelectronics due to non-dissipative spin-polarized electron transport through their edges. For this transport to persist at normal conditions, the insulators should possess a sufficiently large band gap in a stable topological phase. Here, we theoretically show that quantum spin Hall insulators can be realized in ultra-thin films constructed from a trivial band insulator with strong spin-orbit coupling. The thinnest film with an inverted gap large enough for practical applications is a centrosymmetric sextuple layer built out of two inversely stacked non-centrosymmetric BiTeI trilayers. This nontrivial sextuple layer turns out to be the structure element of an artificially designed strong three-dimensional topological insulator Bi${}_2$Te${}_2$I${}_2$. We reveal general principles of how a topological insulator can be composed from the structure elements of the BiTeX family (X=I, Br, Cl), which opens new perspectives towards engineering of topological phases.

arXiv comment6 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Exfoliation of single layer BiTeI flakes
• 2D and 3D topological phases in BiTe$X$ compounds
• Manipulating topological-insulator properties using quantum confinement
• Uniaxial Strain Induced Topological Phase Transition in Bismuth-Tellurohalide-Graphene Heterostructures
• Ab initio k.p theory of spin-momentum locking: Application to topological surface states
• Topological Phase Diagram of BiTeX--Graphene Hybrid Structures
• Variety of scenarios of the magnetic exchange response in topological insulators
• Engineering stacking-induced topological phase transitions in bilayer heterostructures