Controlling quantum spin Hall state via strain in various stacking bilayer phosphorene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that applying strain to bilayer phosphorene can induce a topological phase transition to a quantum spin Hall state, with potential for room-temperature applications and enhanced optical properties.

Contribution

It reveals a strain-controlled topological phase transition in bilayer phosphorene, dependent on stacking, with a large topological bandgap suitable for room-temperature QSH effects.

Findings

Strain induces a topological phase transition in bilayer phosphorene.

A topological bandgap of up to 92.5 meV is achieved.

Optical absorption extends to far-infra-red, broadening application range.

Abstract

Quantum spin Hall (QSH) state of matter has a charge excitation bulk bandgap and a pair of gapless spin-filtered edge-states, which can support backscattering-free transport. Bilayer phosphorene possesses a large tunable bandgap and high carrier mobilities, and therefore has the widely potential applications in nanoelectronics and optics. Here, we demonstrate an strain-induced electronic topological phase transition from a normal to QSH state in bilayer phosphorene accompanying by a band inversion that changes $\mathbbm{Z}_{2}$ from 0 to 1, which is highly dependent on the interlayer stacking. When the bottom layer is shifted by 1/2 unit cell along axial direction with respect to the top layer, the topological bandgap reaches up to 92.5 meV, which is sufficiently large to realize the QSH effect at room temperature. Its optical absorption spectrum becomes broadened, and even extends to the far-infra-red region leading to a wider range of brightness, which is highly desirable in optic devices.