Issue 26, 2019

Uniaxial strain induced topological phase transition in bismuth–tellurohalide–graphene heterostructures

Abstract

We explore the electronic structure and topological phase diagram of heterostructures formed of graphene and ternary bismuth tellurohalide layers. We show that mechanical strain inherently present in fabricated samples could induce a topological phase transition in single-sided heterostructures, turning the sample into a novel experimental realisation of a time reversal invariant topological insulator. We construct an effective tight binding description for low energy excitations and fit the model's parameters to ab initio band structures. We propose a simple approach for predicting phase boundaries as a function of mechanical distortions and hence gain a deeper understanding on how the topological phase in the considered system may be engineered.

Graphical abstract: Uniaxial strain induced topological phase transition in bismuth–tellurohalide–graphene heterostructures

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
27 May 2019
Accepted
16 Jun 2019
First published
19 Jun 2019

Nanoscale, 2019,11, 12704-12711

Uniaxial strain induced topological phase transition in bismuth–tellurohalide–graphene heterostructures

Z. Tajkov, D. Visontai, L. Oroszlány and J. Koltai, Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 12704 DOI: 10.1039/C9NR04519H

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