Symmetry breaking and Landau quantization in topological crystalline insulators
Name
PhysRevB.90.035402.pdf
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1016.56 KB
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Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Serbyn, Maksym
Fu, Liang
Date Issued
July 2014
Journal
Physical Review B
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Serbyn, Maksym, and Liang Fu. “Symmetry Breaking and Landau Quantization in Topological Crystalline Insulators.” Phys. Rev. B 90, no. 3 (July 2014). © 2014 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In the recently discovered topological crystalline insulators SnTe and Pb[subscript 1−x]Sn[subscript x](Te, Se), crystal symmetry and electronic topology intertwine to create topological surface states with many interesting features including Lifshitz transition, Van-Hove singularity, and fermion mass generation. These surface states are protected by mirror symmetry with respect to the (110) plane. In this work we present a comprehensive study of the effects of different mirror-symmetry-breaking perturbations on the (001) surface band structure. Pristine (001) surface states have four branches of Dirac fermions at low energy. We show that ferroelectric-type structural distortion generates a mass and gaps out some or all of these Dirac points, while strain shifts Dirac points in the Brillouin zone. An in-plane magnetic field leaves the surface state gapless, but introduces asymmetry between Dirac points. Finally, an out-of-plane magnetic field leads to discrete Landau levels. We show that the Landau level spectrum has an unusual pattern of degeneracy and interesting features due to the unique underlying band structure. This suggests that Landau level spectroscopy can detect and distinguish between different mechanisms of symmetry breaking in topological crystalline insulators.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.035402
