Topological crystalline insulator states in the Ca$_2$As family (1805.05215v1)

Abstract: Topological crystalline insulators (TCI) are insulating electronic phases of matter with nontrivial topology originating from crystalline symmetries. Recent theoretical advances have provided powerful guidelines to search for TCIs in real materials. Using density functional theory, we identify a class of new TCI states in the tetragonal lattice of the Ca$2$As material family. On both top and side surfaces, we observe topological surface states protected independently by rotational and mirror symmetries. We show that a particular lattice distortion can single out the newly proposed topological protection by the rotational symmetry. As a result, the Dirac points of the topological surface states are moved to generic locations in momentum space away from any high symmetry lines. Such topological surface states have not been seen before. Moreover, the other family members, including Ca$_2$Sb, Ca$_2$Bi and Sr$_2$Sb, feature different topological surface states due to their distinct topological invariants. We thus further propose topological phase transitions in the pseudo-binary systems such as (Ca${1-x}$Sr$x$)$_2$As and Ca$_2$As$_x$Sb${1-x}$. Our work reveals rich and exotic TCI physics across the Ca$_2$As family of materials, and suggests the feasibility of materials database search methods to discover new TCIs.