Topological Insulators in Hexagonal Wurtzite-type Binary Compounds

Abstract

We propose new topological insulators in hexagonal wurtzite-type binary compounds based on the first principles calculations. It is found that two compounds AgI and AuI are three-dimensional topological insulators with a naturally opened band-gap at Fermi level. From band inversion mechanism point view, this new family of topological insulators is similar with HgTe, which has s (Gamma 6) - p (Gamma 8) band inversion. Our results strongly support that the spin-orbit coupling is not an essential factor to the band inversion mechanism; on the contrary, it is mainly responsible to the formation of a global band gap for the studied topological insulators. We further theoretically explore the feasibility of tuning the topological order of the studied compounds with two types of strains. The results show that the uniaxial strain can contribute extremely drastic impacts to the band inversion behavior, which provide an effective approach to induce topological phase transition.