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A new family of two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators (TIs) comprising g-TlA (A = N, P, As, and Sb) monolayers constructed by Tl and group-Ⅴ elements is predicted by first-principles calculations and molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations. The geometric stability, band inversion, nontrivial edge states, and electric polarity are investigated to predict the large-gap quantum spin Hall insulator and Rashba-Dresselhaus effects. The MD results reveal that the g-TlA monolayers remain stable even at room temperature. The g-TlA (A = As, Sb) monolayers become TIs under the influence of strong spin-orbit couplings with large bulk bandgaps of 131 and 268 meV, respectively. A single band inversion is observed in each g-TlA (A = As, Sb) monolayer, indicating a nontrivial topological nature. Furthermore, the topological edge states are described by introducing a sufficiently wide zigzag-nanoribbon. A Dirac point in the middle of the bulk gap connects the valence- and conduction-band edges. The Fermi velocity near the Dirac point with a linear band dispersion is ~0.51 × 106 m/s, which is comparable to that of many other 2D nanomaterials. More importantly, owing to the broken inversion symmetry normal to the plane of the g-TlA films, a promising Rashba-Dresselhaus effect with the parameter up to 0.85 eV·? is observed in the g-TlA (A = As, Sb) monolayers. Our findings regarding 2D topological g-TlA monolayers with room-temperature bandgaps, intriguing topological edge states, and a promising Rashba-Dresselhaus effect are of fundamental value and suggest potential applications in nanoelectronic devices.

Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 07 February 2015
Revised: 07 April 2015
Accepted: 20 April 2015
Published: 24 July 2015
Issue date: September 2015

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program, No. 2013CB632401), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21333006 and 11174180), the Fund for Doctoral Program of National Education (No. 20120131110066), the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2013AM021) and 111 Project B13029. We also thank the High Performance Computing Center of Shandong University for providing high performance computation.

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