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Designer Topological Insulators in Superlattices
Gapless Dirac surface states are protected at the interface of topological
and normal band insulators. In a binary superlattice bearing such interfaces,
we establish that valley-dependent dimerization of symmetry-unrelated Dirac
surface states can be exploited to induce topological quantum phase
transitions. This mechanism leads to a rich phase diagram that allows us to
design strong, weak, and crystalline topological insulators. Our ab initio
simulations further demonstrate this mechanism in [111] and [110] superlattices
of calcium and tin tellurides.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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