Band inversion and topological aspects in a TiNI monolayer

Aizhu Wang; Zhenhai Wang; Aijun Du; Mingwen Zhao

doi:10.1039/c6cp02617f

Band inversion and topological aspects in a TiNI monolayer

Phys Chem Chem Phys. 2016 Aug 10;18(32):22154-9. doi: 10.1039/c6cp02617f.

Authors

Aizhu Wang¹, Zhenhai Wang², Aijun Du³, Mingwen Zhao⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China. zmw@sdu.edu.cn and School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, QLD 4001, Australia. aijun.du@qut.edu.au.
² Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210003, China and Department of Geosciences, Center for Materials by Design, and Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
³ School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, QLD 4001, Australia. aijun.du@qut.edu.au.
⁴ School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China. zmw@sdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 27443232
DOI: 10.1039/c6cp02617f

Abstract

To achieve a device application of the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect, increasing the critical temperature is crucial. A two-dimensional topological insulator (2D-TI) with a sizeable bulk band gap is one of the most promising strategies to reach this goal. Using first-principles calculations, we propose a new 2D-TI, titanium nitride iodide (TiNI) monolayer, which can be exfoliated from a bulk TiNI crystal, thanks to the weak interlayer interaction. We demonstrate that the TiNI monolayer has an inverted band structure accompanied by topologically nontrivial states characterized by a topological invariant of Z2 = 1. The band gap (∼50 meV) opened due to spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is available for achieving the QSH effect at room temperature. The band inversion and topologically nontrivial states are robust under external strain, suggesting that the 2D TiNI monolayer lattice could be a versatile platform for hosting nontrivial topological states with potential applications in 2D spintronics and computer technology.