The influence of proximity induced ferromagnetism, superconductivity and Fermi-velocity on evolution of Berry phase in Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ topological insulator

TL;DR

This paper investigates how proximity-induced ferromagnetism, superconductivity, and Fermi-velocity affect the Berry phase in Bi₂Se₃ topological insulators, revealing dependencies on band gap and surface state properties.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of how external perturbations and Fermi-velocity tuning influence the Berry phase in gapped topological insulator systems.

Findings

Berry phase deviates from (2n+1)π due to symmetry-breaking perturbations

Fermi-velocity tuning affects the Berry phase in TI surface states

Proximity effects induce band gaps that modify topological properties

Abstract

Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ is a well known 3D-topological insulators(TI) with a non-trivial Berry phase of $ \left(2n+1\right)\pi $ attributed to the topology of the band structure. The Berry phase shows non-topological deviations from $ \left(2n+1\right)\pi $ in presence of a perturbation that destroys time reversal symmetry and gives rise to a quantum system with massive Dirac fermions and finite band gap. Such a band gap opening is achieved on account of the exchange field of a ferromagnet or the intrinsic energy gap of a superconductor that influences the topological insulator surface states by virtue of the proximity effect. In this work Berry phase of such gapped systems with massive Dirac fermions is considered. Additionally, it is shown that the Berry phase for such a system also depends on the \textit{Fermi}-velocity of the surface states which can be tuned as a function of the TI film thickness.