Magnetic Second-Order Topological Insulators in 2H-Transition Metal Dichalcogenides

The transition metal dichalcogenides, 2H-VX₂ (X = S, Se, Te), are identified as two-dimensional second-order topological insulator (SOTI) with a ferromagnetic ground state by first-principles calculations. The 2H-VX₂ (X = S, Se, Te) materials have a nontrivial band gap in two spin channels is found and exhibit topologically protected corner states with spin-polarization. These corner states only accommodate the quantized fractional charge (e/3). And the charge is bound at the corners of the nanodisk geometry 2H-VX₂ (X = S, Se, Te) in real space. The corner states are robust against symmetry-breaking perturbations, which makes them more easily detectable in experiments. Further, it is demonstrated that the SOTI properties of 2H-VX₂ (X = S, Se, Te) materials can be maintained in the presence of spin-orbit coupling and are stable against magnetization. Overall, the results reveal 2H-VX₂ (X = S, Se, Te) as an ideal platform for the exploration of magnetic SOTI and suggest its great potential in experimental detection.