Abstract
A topological insulator is an unusual quantum state of matter, characterized by the appearance, at its edges or on its surface, of a gapless metallic state that is protected by time-reversal symmetry1,2. The discovery of topological insulators has stimulated the search for other topological states protected by other symmetries3,4,5,6,7, such as the recently predicted8 topological crystalline insulator (TCI) in which the metallic surface states are protected by the mirror symmetry of the crystal. Here we present experimental evidence for the TCI phase in tin telluride (SnTe), which has been predicted to be a TCI (ref. 9). Our angle-resolved photoemission spectra show the signature of a metallic Dirac-cone surface band, with its Dirac point slightly away from the edge of the surface Brillouin zone in SnTe. Such a gapless surface state is absent in a cousin material, lead telluride, in line with the theoretical prediction.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hasan, M. Z. & Kane, C. L. Colloquium: Topological insulators. Rev. Mod. Phys. 82, 3045–3067 (2010).
Qi, X-L. & Zhang, S-C. Topological insulators and superconductors. Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 1057–1110 (2011).
Schnyder, A. P., Ryu, S., Furusaki, A. & Ludwig, A. W. W. Classification of topological insulators in three spatial dimensions. Phys. Rev. B 78, 195125 (2008).
Kitaev, A. Periodic table for topological insulators and superconductors. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.2686v2 (2009).
Ran, Y. Weak indices and dislocations in general topological band structures. Preprint at http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.5454v2 (2010).
Mong, R. S. K., Essin, A. M. & Moore, J. E. Antiferromagnetic topological insulators. Phys. Rev. B 81, 245209 (2010).
Li, R., Wang, J., Qi, X-L. & Zhang, S-C. Dynamical axion field in topological magnetic insulators. Nature Phys. 6, 284–288 (2010).
Fu, L. Topological crystalline insulators. Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 106802 (2011).
Hsieh, T. H. et al. Topological crystalline insulators in the SnTe material class. Nature Commun. 3, 982 (2012).
Kane, C. L. & Mele, E. J. Z2 topological order and the quantum spin Hall effect. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 146802 (2005).
Bernevig, B. A., Hughes, T. L. & Zhang, S-C. Quantum spin Hall effect and topological phase transition in HgTe quantum wells. Science 314, 1757–1761 (2006).
Xu, C. & Moore, J. E. Stability of the quantum spin Hall effect: Effects of interactions, disorder, and Z2 topology. Phys. Rev. B 73, 045322 (2006).
Qi, X-L., Hughes, T. L. & Zhang, S-C. Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators. Phys. Rev. B 78, 195424 (2008).
Tung, Y. W. & Cohen, M. L. Relativistic band structure and electronic properties of SnTe, GeTe, and PbTe. Phys. Rev. 180, 823–826 (1969).
Melvin, J. S. & Hendry, D. C. Self-consistent relativistic energy bands for tin telluride. J. Phys. C 12, 3003–3012 (1979).
Littlewood, P. B. et al. Band structure of SnTe studied by photoemission spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 086404 (2010).
Richard Burke, J. Jr, Allgaier, R. S., Houston, B. B., Babiskin, J. & Siebenmann, P. G. Shubnikov-de Haas effect in SnTe. Phys. Rev. Lett. 14, 360–361 (1965).
Allgaier, R. S. & Houston, B. Weak-field magnetoresistance and the valence-band structure of SnTe. Phys. Rev. B 5, 2186–2197 (1972).
Iizumi, M., Hamaguchi, Y., Komatsubara, K. F. & Kato, Y. Phase transition in SnTe with low carrier concentration. J. Phys. Soc. Jpn 38, 443–449 (1975).
Bostwick, A., Ohta, T., Seyller, T., Horn, K. & Rotenberg, E. Quasiparticle dynamics in graphene. Nature Phys. 3, 36–40 (2007).
Nakayama, K., Sato, T., Takahashi, T. & Murakami, H. Doping induced evolution of Fermi surface in low carrier superconductor Tl-doped PbTe. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 227004 (2008).
Acknowledgements
We thank L. Fu for stimulating discussions. We also thank M. Komatsu, M. Nomura, E. Ieki, T. Takahashi, N. Inami, H. Kumigashira and K. Ono for their assistance in ARPES measurements, and T. Ueyama and K. Eto for their assistance in crystal growth. This work was supported by JSPS (NEXT Program and KAKENHI 23224010), JST-CREST, MEXT of Japan (Innovative Area Topological Quantum Phenomena), AFOSR (AOARD 124038) and KEK-PF (proposal number: 2012S2-001).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Y.T., T.S., K.N., S.S. and T.T. performed ARPES measurements. Z.R., K.S. and Y.A. carried out the growth of the single crystals and their characterizations. Y.T., T.S. and Y.A. conceived the experiments and wrote the manuscript.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 5500 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanaka, Y., Ren, Z., Sato, T. et al. Experimental realization of a topological crystalline insulator in SnTe. Nature Phys 8, 800–803 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2442
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2442
This article is cited by
-
Axially lattice-matched wurtzite/rock-salt GaAs/Pb1−xSnxTe nanowires
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Pressure-induced superconductivity in the nonsymmorphic topological insulator KHgAs
NPG Asia Materials (2023)
-
Intertwined Weyl phases emergent from higher-order topology and unconventional Weyl fermions via crystalline symmetry
npj Quantum Materials (2022)
-
Terahertz lattice and charge dynamics in ferroelectric semiconductor SnxPb1−xTe
npj Quantum Materials (2022)
-
Robust dual topological insulator phase in NaZnBi
NPG Asia Materials (2022)
