Two-dimensional Dirac semiconductor and its material realization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new class of 2D Dirac semiconductors characterized by fourfold degenerate band crossings, exemplified by TL-BiOS2, which exhibits unique spin textures and tunable topological phase transitions, opening avenues for spintronics and optoelectronics.

Contribution

It proposes the concept of 2D Dirac semiconductors, identifies TL-BiOS2 as a realization, and demonstrates tunable topological phase transitions driven by electric fields and strain.

Findings

TL-BiOS2 is a 2D Dirac semiconductor with protected Dirac cones.

Layer-dependent helical spin textures are observed in TL-BiOS2.

Electric field and strain can induce topological phase transitions in TL-BiOS2.

Abstract

We propose a new concept of two-dimensional (2D) Dirac semiconductor which is characterized by the emergence of fourfold degenerate band crossings near the band edge and provide a generic approach to realize this novel semiconductor in the community of material science. Based on the first-principle calculations and symmetry analysis, we discover recently synthesised triple-layer (TL)-BiOS2 is such Dirac semiconductor that features Dirac cone at X/Y point, protected by nonsymmorphic symmetry. Due to sandwich-like structure, each Dirac fermion in TL-BiOS2 can be regarded as a combination of two Weyl fermions with opposite chiralities, degenerate in momentum-energy space but separated in real space. Such Dirac semiconductor carries layer-dependent helical spin textures that never been reported before. Moreover, novel topological phase transitions are flexibly achieved in TL-BiOS2: (i) an vertical electric field can drive it into Weyl semiconductor with switchable spin polarization direction, (ii) an extensive strain is able to generate ferroelectric polarization and actuate it into Weyl nodal ring around X point and into another type of four-fold degenerate point at Y point. Our work extends the Dirac fermion into semiconductor systems and provides a promising avenue to integrate spintronics and optoelectronics in topological materials.