Two-dimensional carbon topological insulators superior to graphene

Abstract

Graphene was the first material predicted to realize a topological insulator (TI), but unfortunately the gap is unobservably small due to carbon's weak spin-orbital coupling (SOC). Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a stable sp-sp(2) hybrid carbon network as a graphene analog whose electronic band structures in proximity of the Fermi level are characterized by Dirac cones. We demonstrate that this unique carbon framework has topologically nontrivial electronic structures with the Z2 topological invariant of v = 1 which is quite promising for hosting the quantum spin Hall effect (QSHE) in an experimentally accessible low temperature regime (<7 K). This provides a viable approach for searching for new TIs in 2D carbon allotropes.