Strain tuned topology in the Haldane and the modified Haldane models

We study the interplay between a uniaxial strain and the topology of the Haldane and the modified Haldane models which, respectively, exhibit chiral and antichiral edge modes. The latter were, recently, predicted by Colomés and Franz (2018 Phys. Rev. Lett. 120 086603) and expected to take place in the transition metal dichalcogenides. Using the continuum approximation and a tight-binding approach, we investigate the effect of the strain on the topological phases and the corresponding edge modes. We show that the strain could induce transitions between topological phases with opposite Chern numbers or tune a topological phase into a trivial one. As a consequence, the dispersions of the chiral and antichiral edge modes are found to be strain dependent. The strain may reverse the direction of propagation of these modes and eventually destroy them. This effect may be used for strain-tunable edge currents in topological insulators and two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides.