(Invited) Topological States in Multi-Orbital Honeycomb Lattices of HgTe (CdTe) Quantum Dots

Recent advancements in colloidal chemistry demonstrate that two-dimensional single-crystalline sheets of semiconductors forming a honeycomb lattice can be synthesized by oriented attachment of semiconductor nanocrystals [1,2]. Inspired by these results, we have performed atomistic tight-binding calculations of the band structure of CdSe [3,4] and HgTe [5] sheets with honeycomb nano-geometry. We have also considered honeycomb super-lattices of quantum dots that could be made using nano-lithography of HgTe layers.

In the case of CdSe sheets [3], we predicted that their conduction band exhibits Dirac cones at two distinct energies and nontrivial flat bands. The lowest Dirac conduction band has s-orbital character and is equivalent to the π bands of graphene but with renormalized couplings. The conduction bands higher in energy have no counterpart in graphene; they combine a Dirac cone and flat bands because of their p-orbital character.

We also present very recent results on HgTe [5]. We show theoretically that honeycomb lattices of HgTe can combine the effects of the honeycomb geometry and strong spin-orbit coupling. The conduction bands, experimentally accessible via doping, can be described by a tight-binding lattice model as in graphene, but including multi-orbital degrees of freedom and spin-orbit coupling. This results in very large topological gaps (up to 35 meV) and a flattened band detached from the others. Owing to this flat band and the sizable Coulomb interaction, honeycomb structures of HgTe quantum dots constitute a promising platform for the observation of a fractional Chern insulator or a fractional quantum spin Hall phase.

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[4] C. Delerue, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, doi: 10.1039/C4CP01878H.

[5] Beugeling, W. et al, Nat. Commun. 6:6316 doi: 10.1038/ncomms7316 (2015).