title: Topological insulators in ternary compounds with a honeycomb lattice.
abstract: We investigate a new class of ternary materials such as LiAuSe and KHgSb with a honeycomb structure in Au-Se and Hg-Sb layers. We demonstrate the band inversion in these materials similar to HgTe, which is a strong precondition for existence of the topological surface states. In contrast with graphene, these materials exhibit strong spin-orbit coupling and a small direct band gap at the Γ point. Since these materials are centrosymmetric, it is straightforward to determine the parity of their wave functions, and hence their topological character. Surprisingly, the compound with strong spin-orbit coupling (KHgSb) is trivial, whereas LiAuSe is found to be a topological insulator.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305-404531, USA.
authors.forename: Hai-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Stanislav
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chadov
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Müchler
authors.forename: Binghai
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Xiao-Liang
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kübler
authors.forename: Shou-Cheng
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Felser