Orbital magnetization senses the topological phase transition in a spin-orbit coupled $\alpha$-$T_3$ system

Abstract

The $\alpha$-$T_3$ system undergoes a topological phase transition(TPT) between two distinct quantum spin-Hall phases across $\alpha=0.5$ when the spin-orbit interaction of Kane-Mele type is taken into consideration. As a hallmark of such a TPT, we find that the Berry curvature and the orbital magnetic moment change their respective signs across the TPT. We also find the trails of the TPT in another physical observable, namely, the orbital magnetization(OM) that can be, in principle, detected experimentally through the circular dichroism associated with optical absorption. The topological features of the OM are understood in terms of valley and spin physics. The valley-resolved OM(VROM) and the spin-resolved OM(SROM) exhibit interesting characteristics related to the valley and the spin Chern number when the chemical potential is tuned in the forbidden gap(s) of the energy spectrum. In particular, we find that the slope of the VROM versus the chemical potential in the forbidden gap changes its sign abruptly across the TPT, which is also consistent with the corresponding change in the valley Chern number. Moreover, the slope of the SROM demonstrates a sudden jump by one unit of $e/h$ (where $e$ is the electronic charge and $h$ is the Planck's constant) across the TPT, which is also in agreement with the corresponding change in the spin Chern number. It is further seen that a definite spin-valley optical selection rule governs the circular dichroism. The $k$-resolved degree of the optical polarization and the low-frequency differential optical absorbance manifest sign change across the TPT. We discuss experimentally viable signatures of different quantum spin-Hall phases in the optical absorbance.