Topological phase transitions and flat bands on an islamic lattice

J Phys Condens Matter. 2023 Oct 16;36(3). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/acfeba.

Abstract

We construct an islamic lattice by considering the nearest-neighbor (NN) hoppings with staggered magnetic fluxes and the next-NN hoppings. This model supports abundant quantum phases for various values of filling fractions. At1/4filling, Chern insulator (CI) phases with Chern numbersC=±1, -2and a zero-Chern-number topological insulator (ZCNTI) phase exist. At3/8filling, several CI phases with Chern numbersC=±1, 3and the ZCNTI phase are obtained. For the filling fraction 3/4, CI phases with Chern numbersC=±1, 2and two ZCNTI phase areas appear. Interestingly, these ZCNTI phases host both robust corner states and gapless edge states which can be characterized by the quantized polarization and quadrupole moment. We further find that staggered magnetic fluxes can give rise to the ZCNTI state at1/4and3/4fillings. Phase diagrams for filling fractions1/8,1/2,5/8and7/8are presented as well. In addition, flat bands are obtained for various filling fractions by tuning the hopping parameters. At 1/8 filling, a best topological flat band (TFB) with flatness ratio about 12 appears. Several trivial flat bands but with total Chern number|C|=1emerge in this model and exactly flat band is found at 3/8 filling. We further investigateν=1/2fractional Chern insulate state when hard-core bosons fill into this TFB model.

Keywords: Chern insulators; flat bands; fractional Chern insulator; topological phase transitions; zero-Chern-number topological insulator.