Nearly perfect spin-filtering in curved two-dimensional topological insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that curved two-dimensional topological insulator nanostructures can act as highly effective, magnetic-field-free spin filters, combining theoretical modeling and DFT calculations to predict their stability and spintronic properties.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized tight-binding model for curved 2DTI structures and predicts nearly perfect spin filtering in a specific dome geometry without magnetic fields.

Findings

Curved 2DTI nanostructures can function as efficient two-terminal spin filters.

Theoretical models predict quantum spin Hall physics in curved geometries.

DFT calculations confirm stability of the proposed dome structure.

Abstract

The spintronic properties of curved nanostructures derived from two-dimensional topological insulators (2DTI's) are explored theoretically with density functional theory-based (DFT) calculations and tight-binding models. We show that curved geometries make it possible to manipulate electron spins in ways that are not available for planar 2DTI devices. We predict that, unlike planar 2DTI devices, curved 2DTI-related nanostructures can function as highly effective {\em two}-terminal spin filters even in the absence of magnetic fields. We construct a generalization to curved geometries of our previous tight binding model of the wide band gap planar 2DTI bismuthene on SiC. The resulting model, applied to an ideal dome geometry with a free edge, is shown to exhibit quantum spin Hall physics, including spin polarized edge states. The model predicts nearly perfect spin filtering by the dome for a particular two-terminal geometry in the absence of magnetic fields. Our DFT calculations predict a Bi$_{105}$Si$_{105}$H$_{15}$ dome of bismuthene with adsorbed silicon and hydrogen atoms to be stable. Our tight binding model, adjusted to match density of states given by DFT calculations, predicts that the Bi$_{105}$Si$_{105}$H$_{15}$ dome should exhibit quantum spin Hall physics and very effective spin filtering in a two-terminal arrangement.