Anomalous dielectric response in insulators with the pi Zak phase

Abstract

In various topological phases, nontrivial states appear at the boundaries of the system. In this paper, we investigate anomalous dielectric response caused by such states caused by the pi Zak phase. First, by using the one-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, we show that, when the system is insulating and the Zak phase is pi, the polarization suddenly rises to a large value close to e/2, by application of an external electric field. The pi Zak phase indicates existence of half-filled edge states, and we attribute this phenomenon to charge transfer between the edge states at the two ends of the system. We extend this idea to two- and three-dimensional insulators with the pi Zak phase over the Brillouin zone, and find similar anomalous dielectric response. We also show that diamond and silicon slabs with (111) surfaces have the pi Zak phase by ab intio calculations, and show that this anomalous response survives even surface reconstruction involving an odd number of original surface unit cells. Another material example with an anomalous dielectric response is polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), showing plateaus of polarization at +e by ab initio calculation, in agreement with our theory.

arXiv comment19 pages, 15 figures

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• From Atomic Semimetal to Topological Nontrivial Insulator
• Abundant surface-semimetal phases in three-dimensional obstructed atomic insulators
• Abundance of second order topology in $C_3$ symmetric two-dimensional insulators
• Topological phases of the interacting Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model: An analytical study
• Bismuth antiphase domain wall: A three-dimensional manifestation of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model
• Emergence of Floquet edge states in the coupled Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model
• Tunable zero modes and quantum interferences in flat-band topological insulators