Dresden 2014 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 42: Topological Insulators: Theory (HL jointly with MA, O, TT)
O 42.4: Talk
Wednesday, April 2, 2014, 10:15–10:30, POT 151
Nontrivial Interface States Confined Between Two Topological Insulators — •Tomáš Rauch1, Markus Flieger1, Jürgen Henk1, and Ingrid Mertig1,2 — 1Institut für Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, D-06099 Halle (Saale), Germany — 2Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
By ab initio-based tight-binding calculations, we show that nontrivial electronic states exist at an interface of a Z2 topological insulator and a topological crystalline insulator. At the exemplary (111) interface between Bi2Te3 and SnTe, the two Dirac surface states at the Brillouin zone center Γ annihilate upon approaching the semi-infinite subsystems but one topologically protected Dirac surface state remains at each time-reversal invariant momentum M. This leads to a highly conducting spin-momentum-locked channel at the interface but insulating bulk regions. For the Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 interface we find complete annihilation of Dirac states because both subsystems belong to the same topology class.