Topological Insulators from Electronic Superstructures

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that electronic superstructures on a triangular lattice can host topological insulators with quantized spin Hall conductivity, driven by the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal two-orbital model showing how charge orderings can lead to topological insulators with tunable band gaps.

Findings

Charge ordered insulators form honeycomb or kagome superstructures.

Strong spin-orbit coupling induces topological phases with quantized spin Hall conductivity.

Band gap depends on electron correlations and spin-orbit coupling, vanishing at phase transitions.

Abstract

The possibility of realizing topological insulators by spontaneous formation of electronic superstructure is theoretically investigated in a minimal two-orbital model including both the spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations on a triangular lattice. Using the mean-field approximation, we show that the model exhibits several different types of charge ordered insulators, where the charge disproportionation forms a honeycomb or kagome superstructure. We find that the charge ordered insulators in the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling can be topological insulators showing quantized spin Hall conductivity. Their band gap is dependent on electron correlations as well as the spin-orbit coupling, and even vanishes with showing the massless Dirac dispersion at the transition to a trivial charge ordered insulator. Our results suggest a new route to realize and control topological states of quantum matter by the interplay between the spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations.