2014/06/12 by Liangzhi Kou, Shu-Chun Wu, Claudia Felser +3 · 113 citations
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #2D Materials and Applications #Condensed matter physics #Dirac (video compression format) #Graphene #Graphene research and applications #Heterojunction #Materials science #Molecule #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #van der Waals force
paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/nn503789v
published in ACS Nano 8(10), 10448-10454 (American Chemical Society)
arxiv created 2014/06/12 · openalex publication_date 2014/09/18 · arxiv updated 2014/12/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We predict a family of robust two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators in van der Waals heterostructures comprising graphene and chalcogenides BiTeX (X = Cl, Br, and I). The layered structures of both constituent materials produce a naturally smooth interface that is conducive to proximity-induced topological states. First-principles calculations reveal intrinsic topologically nontrivial bulk energy gaps as large as 70-80 meV, which can be further enhanced up to 120 meV by compression. The strong spin-orbit coupling in BiTeX has a significant influence on the graphene Dirac states, resulting in the topologically nontrivial band structure, which is confirmed by calculated nontrivial Z2 index and an explicit demonstration of metallic edge states. Such heterostructures offer a unique Dirac transport system that combines the 2D Dirac states from graphene and 1D Dirac edge states from the topological insulator, and it offers ideas for innovative device designs.