title: Metacinnabar (β-HgS): a strong 3D topological insulator with highly anisotropic surface states.
abstract: We establish the presence of topologically protected edge states on the (001) surface of HgS in the zinc-blende structure using density-functional electronic structure calculations. The Dirac point of the edge state cone is very close to the bulk valence band maximum. The Dirac cone is extremely anisotropic with a very large electron velocity along one diagonal of the surface elementary cell x' and a nearly flat dispersion in the perpendicular direction y'. The strong anisotropy originates from a broken fourfold rotoinversion symmetry at the surface.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Matériaux, Microélectronique et Nanosciences de Provence, Faculté St. Jérôme, Université Aix-Marseille, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Virot
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hayn
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van den Brink