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Temperature Effects in the Band Structure of Topological Insulators
Bartomeu Monserrat1,2, David Vanderbilt1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8019, USA.
Abstract:
We study the effects of temperature on the band structure of the Bi_{2}Se_{3} family of topological insulators using first-principles methods. Increasing temperature drives these materials towards the normal state, with similar contributions from thermal expansion and from electron-phonon coupling. The band gap changes with temperature reach 0.3 eV at 600 K, of similar size to the changes caused by electron correlation. Our results suggest that temperature-induced topological phase transitions should be observable near critical points of other external parameters.
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