Effects of first- and second-order topological phases on equilibrium crystal shapes

Abstract

We study equilibrium crystal shapes of a topological insulator (TI), a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) protected by mirror symmetry, and a second-order topological insulator (SOTI) protected by inversion symmetry. By adding magnetic fields to the three-dimensional TI, we can realize the mirror-symmetry-protected TCI and the inversion-symmetry-protected SOTI. They each have topological boundary states in different positions: the TCI has gapless states on the surfaces that are invariant under the symmetry operation, and the SOTI has gapless states at the intersections between certain surfaces. In this paper, we discuss how these boundary states affect the surface energies and the equilibrium crystal shapes in terms of the calculations of the simple tight-binding model by using the Wulff construction. By comparing the changes in the shapes of the TI to that of the trivial insulator through the process of applying the magnetic fields, we show that the presence/absence of the topological boundary states affects the emergence of the specific facets in a different way from the trivial insulator.