Numerical predictions for a topological insulator: an SSH chain on InAs(111)A

Abstract

Topological insulators are materials that are insulating in the bulk, but exhibit conductive states at the boundaries. An example of a topological insulator is the SSH chain. In this thesis, we use a muffin tin model to systematically investigate the hopping parameters, for which an non-trivial, trivial, and delocalized phase is manifested by In adatoms on an InAs(111)A platform. We find that this behaviour is manifested by an SSH chain of 8 artificial atoms, with each artificial atom consisting of 6 In atoms, for the hopping parameters t1 = 5a0 and t2 = 2a0. We anticipate that this thesis provides a stepping stone for the future experimental realization of an In adatom SSH chain.