Strain Induced Kramers-Weyl Phase in III-V Zinc Blende Systems

TL;DR

This paper explores how applying strain to III-V zinc blende semiconductors can induce and control topological phases, specifically Kramers-Weyl nodes, with potential experimental detection methods.

Contribution

It demonstrates theoretically that strain can create and tune Kramers-Weyl nodes in III-V semiconductors, revealing a new way to engineer topological phases.

Findings

Strain induces Kramers-Weyl nodes at the $a0$ point.

Strain can tune the topological charge sign.

Proposes experimental methods for realization and detection.

Abstract

We present theoretical observations on the topological nature of strained III-V semiconductors. By $k \cdot p$ perturbation, it can be shown that the strain-engineered conduction band hosts a Kramers-Weyl node at the $\Gamma$ point. It is theoretically shown a curated strain can create and then tune the sign of the topological charge. Furthermore, we outline experimental methods for both the realization and detection of strain-induced topological phase transitions.