Stacked bilayer phosphorene: strain-induced quantum spin Hall state and optical measurement

Bilayer phosphorene attracted considerable interest, giving a potential application in nanoelectronics owing to its natural bandgap and high carrier mobility. However, very little is known regarding the possible usefulness in spintronics as a quantum spin Hall (QSH) state of material characterized by a bulk energy gap and gapless spin-filtered edge states. Here, we report a strain-induced topological phase transition from normal to QSH state in bilayer phosphorene, accompanied by band-inversion that changes number from 0 to 1, which is highly dependent on interlayer stacking. When the bottom layer is shifted by 1/2 unit-cell along zigzag/armchair direction with respect to the top layer, the maximum topological bandgap 92.5 meV is sufficiently large to realize QSH effect even at room-temperature. An optical measurement of QSH effect is therefore suggested in view of the wide optical absorption spectrum extending to far infra-red, making bilayer phosphorene a promising candidate for opto-spintronic devices.