Ti₃O Menes: Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Promising Semiconductors for Light-Harvesting

The continuous pursuit of novel two-dimensional (2D) materials with intriguing properties has been a driving force in advancing various scientific and technological frontiers. Here, based on a wide range of first-principles calculations, we predicted the existence of a novel family of 2D transition-metal oxides, the Ti₃O Menes (MXene-like 2D transition oxides), and determined its distinctive electronic and topological properties. A pair of 2D antiferromagnetic (AFM) Dirac points precisely located at the Fermi level in the absence of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) is observed in the 1T-Ti₃O monolayer. Moreover, upon halogenation on a bare monolayer, 1T-Ti₃OCl₃ and 1T-Ti₃OBr₃ monolayers display the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect with nontrivial helical edge states within the gapless bulk states. Specifically, single layer 1T-Ti₃OF₃ behaves as an indirect semiconductor with a gap of 0.81 eV, exhibiting a strong light-harvesting capability. The indirect-gap feature can be switched to a direct one by only exerting a small tensile strain of 1.5%. These findings broaden emerging phenomena in a rich family of Menes, suggesting a novel platform for the development of next-generation nanodevices.