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- Title
Topological crystalline insulator states in Pb<sub>1?x</sub>Sn<sub>x</sub>Se.
- Authors
Dziawa, P.; Kowalski, B. J.; Dybko, K.; Buczko, R.; Szczerbakow, A.; Szot, M.; ?usakowska, E.; Balasubramanian, T.; Wojek, B. M.; Berntsen, M. H.; Tjernberg, O.; Story, T.
- Abstract
Topological insulators are a class of quantum materials in which time-reversal symmetry, relativistic effects and an inverted band structure result in the occurrence of electronic metallic states on the surfaces of insulating bulk crystals. These helical states exhibit a Dirac-like energy dispersion across the bulk bandgap, and they are topologically protected. Recent theoretical results have suggested the existence of topological crystalline insulators (TCIs), a class of topological insulators in which crystalline symmetry replaces the role of time-reversal symmetry in ensuring topological protection. In this study we show that the narrow-gap semiconductor Pb1?xSnxSe is a TCI for x? = ?0.23. Temperature-dependent angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates that the material undergoes a temperature-driven topological phase transition from a trivial insulator to a TCI. These experimental findings add a new class to the family of topological insulators, and we anticipate that they will lead to a considerable body of further research as well as detailed studies of topological phase transitions.
- Subjects
QUANTUM theory; PHASE transitions; SYMMETRY (Physics); ENERGY bands; TOPOLOGY; LEAD compounds; EXISTENCE theorems
- Publication
Nature Materials, 2012, Vol 11, Issue 12, p1023
- ISSN
1476-1122
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nmat3449