title: Edge States and Topological Insulating Phases Generated by Curving a Nanowire with Rashba Spin-Orbit Coupling.
abstract: We prove that curvature effects in low-dimensional nanomaterials can promote the generation of topological states of matter by considering the paradigmatic example of quantum wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which are bent in a nanoscale periodic serpentine structure. The effect of the periodic curvature generally results in the appearance of insulating phases with a corresponding novel butterfly spectrum characterized by the formation of finite measure complex regions of forbidden energies. When the Fermi energy lies in the gaps, the system displays localized end states protected by topology. We further show that for certain superstructure periods the system possesses topologically nontrivial insulating phases at half filling. Our results suggest that the local curvature and the topology of the electronic states are inextricably intertwined in geometrically deformed nanomaterials.
authors.affiliation: CNR-SPIN and Dipartimento di Fisica "E. R. Caianiello", Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, I-84084 Fisciano (Salerno), Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gentile
authors.affiliation: CNR-SPIN and Dipartimento di Fisica "E. R. Caianiello", Università degli Studi di Salerno, Via Giovanni Paolo II 132, I-84084 Fisciano (Salerno), Italy.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cuoco
authors.affiliation: Institute for Theoretical Solid State Physics, IFW-Dresden, Helmholtzstraße 20, D-01069 Dresden, Germany.|Institute for Theoretical Physics, Center for Extreme Matter and Emergent Phenomena, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, 3584 CE Utrecht, Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ortix