1202.5526 (Sergey S. Pershoguba et al.)

The Shockley model description of the surface states in topological
insulators    [PDF]

Sergey S. Pershoguba, Victor M. Yakovenko

We show that the surface states in topological insulators can be understood
based on a well-known Shockley model, a one-dimensional tight-binding model
with two atoms per elementary cell, connected via alternating tunneling
amplitudes. We generalize the one-dimensional model to the three-dimensional
case corresponding to the sequence of layers connected via the amplitudes,
which depend on the in-plane momentum p = (p_x,p_y). The Hamiltonian of the
model is described a (2 x 2) Hamiltonian with the off-diagonal element t(k,p)
depending also on the out-of-plane momentum k. We show that the complex
function t(k,p) defines the properties of the surface states. The surface
states exist for the in-plane momenta p, where the winding number of the
function t(k,p) is non-zero as k is changed from 0 to 2pi. The sign of the
winding number defines the sublattice on which the surface states are
localized. The equation t(k,p)=0 defines a vortex line in the three-dimensional
momentum space. The projection of the vortex line on the two-dimensional
momentum p space encircles the domain where the surface states exist. We
illustrate how our approach works for a well-known TI model on a diamond
lattice. We find that different configurations of the vortex lines are
responsible for the "weak" and "strong" topological insulator phases. The phase
transition occurs when the vortex lines reconnect from spiral to circular form.
We discuss the Shockley model description of Bi_2Se_3 and the applicability of
the continuous approximation for the description of the topological edge
states. We conclude that the tight-binding model gives a better description of
the surface states.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5526