Two-Dimensional Large Gap Topological Insulators with Large Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling in Group-IV films

TL;DR

This paper introduces stable 2D group IV films that are topological insulators with large bulk gaps and giant Rashba spin splitting, promising for room temperature spintronic devices.

Contribution

It reports the discovery of stable, large-gap 2D topological insulators with giant Rashba splitting in group IV films, including strain-induced phase transitions.

Findings

Bulk gap up to 0.74 eV in 2D TIs

Giant Rashba splitting up to 0.15 eV

Potential for room temperature spintronic applications

Abstract

Rashba spin orbit coupling in topological insulators has attracted much interest due to its exotic properties closely related to spintronic devices. The coexistence of nontrivial topology and giant Rashba splitting, however, has rare been observed in two-dimensional films, limiting severely its potential applications at room temperature. Here, we propose a series of inversion asymmetric group IV films, ABZ2, whose stability are confirmed by phonon spectrum calculations. The analyses of electronic structures reveal that they are intrinsic 2D TIs with a bulk gap as large as 0.74 eV, except for GeSiF2, SnSiCl2, GeSiCl2 and GeSiBr2 monolayers which can transform from normal to topological phases under appropriate tensile strains. Another prominent intriguing feature is the giant Rashba spin splitting with a magnitude reaching 0.15 eV, the largest value reported in 2D films. These results present a platform to explore 2D TIs for room temperature device applications.