Topological insulators in ternary compounds with a honeycomb lattice

We investigate a new class of ternary materials such as LiAuSe and KHgSb with a honeycomb structure in Au-Se and Hg-Sb layers. We demonstrate the band inversion in these materials similar to HgTe, which is a strong precondition for existence of the topological surface states. In contrast with graphe...

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Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 106; no. 15; p. 156402
Main Authors Zhang, Hai-Jun, Chadov, Stanislav, Müchler, Lukas, Yan, Binghai, Qi, Xiao-Liang, Kübler, Jürgen, Zhang, Shou-Cheng, Felser, Claudia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 15.04.2011
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Summary:We investigate a new class of ternary materials such as LiAuSe and KHgSb with a honeycomb structure in Au-Se and Hg-Sb layers. We demonstrate the band inversion in these materials similar to HgTe, which is a strong precondition for existence of the topological surface states. In contrast with graphene, these materials exhibit strong spin-orbit coupling and a small direct band gap at the Γ point. Since these materials are centrosymmetric, it is straightforward to determine the parity of their wave functions, and hence their topological character. Surprisingly, the compound with strong spin-orbit coupling (KHgSb) is trivial, whereas LiAuSe is found to be a topological insulator.
ISSN:1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.156402