Nanoribbons of large-gap quantum spin Hall insulator: electronic structures and transport properties

Two-dimensional Bi grown on semiconductor substrate, a large-gap quantum spin Hall insulator characterized by a ( p x , p y )-orbital hexagonal lattice, has been theoretically proposed and experimentally confirmed. Here, by combining tight-binding modeling with first-principles calculations, we inve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:New journal of physics 2024-02, Vol.26 (2), p.23059
Main Authors: Wu, Meimei, Hua, Chenqiang, Song, Biyu, Zhi, Guo-Xiang, Niu, Tianchao, Zhou, Miao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electric potential
Electron spin
Electron transport
electronic structure
Electrons
Energy gap
epitaxial growth
First principles
Graphene
Hexagonal lattice
Hierarchies
Nanoelectronics
Nanoribbons
Physics
Quantum confinement
quantum spin Hall insulator
Quantum transport
semiconductor substrate
Spectrum analysis
Subgroups
Substrates
Topological insulators
Transport properties
Voltage
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Summary:Two-dimensional Bi grown on semiconductor substrate, a large-gap quantum spin Hall insulator characterized by a ( p x , p y )-orbital hexagonal lattice, has been theoretically proposed and experimentally confirmed. Here, by combining tight-binding modeling with first-principles calculations, we investigate the electronic structures and quantum transport properties of Bi nanoribbons (NRs), focusing on the topological edge states for nanoelectronics. We reveal that band gap emerges due to the quantum confinement, and the gaps size depends crucially on the width and edge shape: for zigzag NRs, the gap decreases monotonically with the increase of width; while for armchair NRs, it can be categorized into three subgroups with band-gap hierarchies of E g ( 3 p − 1 ) > E g ( 3 p ) > E g ( 3 p + 1 ) , so that the overall relation is an oscillating dependence dumped by 1/width decay. Quantum transport calculations demonstrate that the conductance is quantized to 2 e 2 / h , and an applied gate voltage can efficiently regulate the conductance plateau, originating from the interplay between gate voltage and topological gaps. Furthermore, the quantized conductance remains robust against strong disorder, suggesting the unique advantage of topological states for electronic transport. This work not only provides fundamental insights into the electronic properties of topological insulator nanostructures, but also sheds light on the potential applications of exotic states for quantum devices compatible with semiconductor technology.
ISSN:1367-2630
1367-2630
DOI:10.1088/1367-2630/ad2a82