Strain-induced quantum spin hall effect in two-dimensional methyl-functionalized silicene SiCH3

Abstract

Quantum Spin Hall (QSH) has potential applications in low energy consuming spintronic devices and has become a researching hotspot recently. It benefits from insulators feature edge states, topologically protected from backscattering by time-reversal symmetry. The properties of methyl functionalized silicene (SiCH3) have been investigated using first-principles calculations, which show QSH effect under reasonable strain. The origin of the topological characteristic of SiCH3, is mainly associated with the s-pxy orbitals band inversion at Γ point, whilst the band gap appears under the effect of spin-orbital coupling (SOC). The QSH phase of SiCH3 is confirmed by the topological invariant Z2 = 1, as well as helical edge states. The SiCH3 supported by hexagonal boron nitride (BN) film makes it possible to observe its non-trivial topological phase experimentally, due to the weak interlayer interaction. The results of this work provide a new potential candidate for two-dimensional honeycomb lattice spintronic devices in spintronics.