Antiferroelectric topological insulators in ABC compounds

Abstract

We introduce antiferroelectric topological insulators as a new class of functional material in which an electric field can be used to control topological order and induce topological phase transitions. Using first principles methods, we predict that several members of an ABC family of orthorhombic compounds are antiferroelectric topological insulators. We also show that epitaxial strain and hydrostatic pressure can be used to tune the topological order and the band gap of these ABC compounds. Antiferroelectric topological insulators could enable applications in electronics and spintronics.