Observation and control of the weak topological insulator state in ZrTe5

Abstract

A quantum spin Hall insulator hosts topological states at the one-dimensional edge, along which backscattering by nonmagnetic impurities is strictly prohibited and dissipationless current flows. Its 3D analogue, a weak topological insulator (WTI), possesses similar quasi-1D topological states confined at side surfaces of crystals. The enhanced confinement could provide a route for dissipationless current and better advantages for applications relative to the widely studied strong topological insulators. However, the topological side surface is usually not cleavable and is thus hard to observe by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), which has hindered the revealing of the electronic properties of WTIs. Here, we visualize the topological surface states of the WTI candidate ZrTe5 for the first time by spin and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy: a quasi-1D band with spin-momentum locking was revealed on the side surface. We further demonstrate that the bulk band gap in ZrTe5 is controlled by strain to the crystal, realizing a more stabilized WTI state or an ideal Dirac semimetal state depending on the direction of the external strain. The highly directional spin-current and the tunable band gap we found in ZrTe5 will provide an excellent platform for applications.

8 pages, 4 figures. Accepted by Nature Communications

References in corpus (6)

• Topological Insulators with Inversion Symmetry
• Observation of the Quantum Spin Hall Effect up to 100 Kelvin in a Monolayer Crystal
• A precise method for visualizing dispersive features in image plots
• Stacked topological insulator built from bismuth-based graphene sheet analogues
• Evidence for a Strong Topological Insulator Phase in $\mathrm{ZrT}{\mathrm{e}}_5$
• Spectroscopic evidence for bulk-band inversion and three-dimensional massive Dirac fermions in ZrTe5

Cited by in corpus (33)

• Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy
• Room-Temperature Topological Phase Transition in Quasi-One-Dimensional Material Bi${}_4$I${}_4$
• Experimental realization of two-dimensional weak topological insulators
• Thermodynamically Induced Transport Anomaly in Dilute Metals ZrTe${}_5$ and HfTe${}_5$
• Epitaxial Growth of Quasi-One-Dimensional Bismuth-Halide Chains with Topological Non-Trivial Edge States
• Towards Layer-Selective Quantum Spin Hall Channels in Weak Topological Insulator Bi4Br2I2
• Altermagnetism-Induced Parity Anomaly in Weak Topological Insulators
• Topology hierarchy of transition metal dichalcogenides built from quantum spin Hall layers
• Anomalous Hall effect at the Lifshitz transition in ZrTe5
• Temperature dependence of the energy band gap in ZrTe${}_5$: implications for the topological phase
• Pressure-induced superconductivity in weak topological insulator BiSe
• Cataloging topological phases of $N$-stacked Su-Schrieffer-Heeger chains by a systematic breaking of symmetries
• Gate-tunable multiband transport in ZrTe5 thin devices
• Coalescence of multiple topological orders in quasi-one-dimensional bismuth halide chains
• Fractional Electromagnetic Response in Three-Dimensional Chiral Anomalous Semimetal
• Visualization of spin-polarized electronic states by imaging-type spin-resolved photoemission microscopy
• Mode-Shell correspondence, a unifying phase space theory in topological physics -- Part I: Chiral number of zero-modes
• Signature of pressure-induced topological phase transition in ZrTe${}_5$
• Theory of anomalous Hall effect in transition-metal pentatelluride ${\mathrm{ZrTe}}_5$ and ${\mathrm{HfTe}}_5$
• Engineering a pure Dirac regime in ZrTe${}_5$
• On the effects of strain, defects, and interactions on the topological properties of HfTe5
• Rashba-splitting-induced topological flat band detected by anomalous resistance oscillations beyond the quantum limit in ZrTe${}_5$
• Uniaxial stress effect on the electronic structure of quantum materials
• Mode-Shell correspondence, a unifying phase space theory in topological physics -- part II: Higher-dimensional spectral invariants
• The electronic structure of Mn${}_{1-x}$Pb${}_x$Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$: experimental evidence of topological phase transition
• Intertwined topological phases in TaAs2 nanowires with giant magnetoresistance and quantum coherent surface transport
• Inducing Quantum Phase Transitions in Non-Topological Insulators Via Atomic Control of Sub-Structural Elements
• Giant quantum oscillations in thermal transport in low-density metals via electron absorption of phonons
• Pairing around a Single Dirac Point: A Unifying View of Kohn-Luttinger Superconductivity in Chern Bands, Quarter Metals, and Topological Surface States
• Optical manipulation of the topological phase in ZrTe5 revealed by time- and angle-resolved photoemission
• First-principles studies of fermiology in topological phases of bulk ZrTe${}_5$
• Temperature-Dependent Collective Excitations in a Three-Dimensional Dirac System ZrTe${}_5$
• Analytical solutions of topological surface states in a series of lattice models