Fragile topological insulators protected by rotation symmetry without spin-orbit coupling

TL;DR

This paper introduces models of three-dimensional fragile topological insulators in class AI, protected by rotation and time-reversal symmetries without spin-orbit coupling, featuring gapless surface states characterized by novel topological invariants.

Contribution

It generalizes Fu's model to include minimal surface Hamiltonians with $C_n$ symmetry, identifying new fragile topological phases characterized by Wilson loop invariants and surface state structures.

Findings

Identified two types of fragile topological insulators: $ ext{Z}$ and $ ext{Z}_2$ types.

Demonstrated surface states with quadratic band touching and multiple Dirac cones.

Showed surface states can be gapped by hybridization with $s$-orbital bands.

Abstract

We present a series of models of three-dimensional rotation-symmetric fragile topological insulators in class AI (time-reversal symmetric and spin-orbit-free systems), which have gapless surface states protected by time-reversal ($T$) and $n$-fold rotation ($C_n$) symmetries ($n=2,4,6$). Our models are generalizations of Fu's model of a spinless topological crystalline insulator, in which orbital degrees of freedom play the role of pseudo-spins. We consider minimal surface Hamiltonian with $C_n$ symmetry in class AI and discuss possible symmetry-protected gapless surface states, i.e., a quadratic band touching and multiple Dirac cones with linear dispersion. We characterize topological structure of bulk wave functions in terms of two kinds of topological invariants obtained from Wilson loops: $\mathbb{Z}_2$ invariants protected by $C_n$ ($n=4,6$) and time-reversal symmetries, and $C_2T$-symmetry-protected $\mathbb{Z}$ invariants (the Euler class) when the number of occupied bands is two. Accordingly, our models realize two kinds of fragile topological insulators. One is a fragile $\mathbb{Z}$ topological insulator whose only nontrivial topological index is the Euler class that specifies the number of surface Dirac cones. The other is a fragile $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological insulator having gapless surface states with either a quadratic band touching or four (six) Dirac cones, which are protected by time-reversal and $C_4$ ($C_6$) symmetries. Finally, we discuss the instability of gapless surface states against the addition of $s$-orbital bands and demonstrate that surface states are gapped out through hybridization with surface-localized $s$-orbital bands.