Layered Topological Crystalline Insulators

Youngkuk Kim, C. L. Kane, E. J. Mele, and Andrew M. Rappe

Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 086802 – Published 20 August 2015

Abstract

Topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) are insulating materials whose topological property relies on generic crystalline symmetries. Based on first-principles calculations, we study a three-dimensional (3D) crystal constructed by stacking two-dimensional TCI layers. Depending on the interlayer interaction, the layered crystal can realize diverse 3D topological phases characterized by two mirror Chern numbers (MCNs) ( $μ_{1}, μ_{2}$ ) defined on inequivalent mirror-invariant planes in the Brillouin zone. As an example, we demonstrate that new TCI phases can be realized in layered materials such as a PbSe (001) monolayer/ $h$ -BN heterostructure and can be tuned by mechanical strain. Our results shed light on the role of the MCNs on inequivalent mirror-symmetric planes in reciprocal space and open new possibilities for finding new topological materials.

Received 19 March 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.086802

Authors & Affiliations

Youngkuk Kim¹, C. L. Kane², E. J. Mele², and Andrew M. Rappe¹

¹The Makineni Theoretical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6323, USA
²Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6396, USA