Integer quantum Hall effect and topological phase transitions in silicene

Abstract

We numerically investigate the effects of disorder on the quantum Hall effect (QHE) and the quantum phase transitions in silicene based on a lattice model. It is shown that for a clean sample, silicene exhibits an unconventional QHE near the band center, with plateaus developing at $\nu =0,\pm 2,\pm 6,\dots ,$ and a conventional QHE near the band edges. In the presence of disorder, the Hall plateaus can be destroyed through the float-up of extended levels toward the band center, in which higher plateaus disappear first. However, the center $\nu =0$ Hall plateau is more sensitive to disorder and disappears at a relatively weak disorder strength. Moreover, the combination of an electric field and the intrinsic spin-orbit interaction (SOI) can lead to quantum phase transitions from a topological insulator to a band insulator at the charge neutrality point (CNP), accompanied by additional quantum Hall conductivity plateaus.

7 pages, 4 figures

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• Valley polarized quantum Hall effect and topological insulator phase transitions in silicene
• Quantum Hall Effect of Dirac Fermions in Graphene: Disorder Effect and Phase Diagram
• Odd-Integer Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene: Interaction and Disorder Effects
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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Temperature effect on the magnetic oscillations in 2D materials