Strain effects in topological insulators: Topological order and the emergence of switchable topological interface states in Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 heterojunctions

We investigate the effects of strain on the topological order of the Bi2Se3 family of topological insulators by ab initio first-principles methods. Strain can induce a topological phase transition and we present the phase diagram for the 3D topological insulators, Bi2Te3, Sb2Te3, Bi2Se3, and Sb2Se3, under combined uniaxial and biaxial strain. Their phase diagram is universal and shows metallic and insulating phases, both topologically trivial and nontrivial. In particular, uniaxial tension can drive the four compounds into a topologically trivial insulating phase. We propose a Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 heterojunction in which a strain-induced topological interface state arises in the common gap of this normal insulator-topological insulator heterojunction. Unexpectedly, the interface state is confined in the topologically trivial subsystem and is physically protected from ambient impurities. It can be switched on or off by means of uniaxial strain and therefore Sb2Te3/Bi2Te3 heterojunctions provide a topological system which hosts tunable robust helical interface states with promising spintronic applications.