Topological Dirac states beyond $\pi$ orbitals for silicene on SiC(0001) surface

Abstract

The discovery of intriguing properties related to the Dirac states in graphene has spurred huge interest in exploring its two-dimensional group-IV counterparts, such as silicene, germanene, and stanene. However, these materials have to be obtained via synthesizing on substrates with strong interfacial interactions, which usually destroy their intrinsic $\pi$($p_z$)-orbital Dirac states. Here we report a theoretical study on the existence of Dirac states arising from the $p_{x,y}$ orbitals instead of $p_z$ orbitals in silicene on 4H-SiC(0001), which survive in spite of the strong interfacial interactions. We also show that the exchange field together with the spin-orbital coupling give rise to a detectable band gap of 1.3 meV. Berry curvature calculations demonstrate the nontrivial topological nature of such Dirac states with a Chern number $C = 2$, presenting the potential of realizing quantum anomalous Hall effect for silicene on SiC(0001). Finally, we construct a minimal effective model to capture the low-energy physics of this system. This finding is expected to be also applicable to germanene and stanene, and imply great application potentials in nanoelectronics.