Spin texture on the Fermi surface of tensile strained HgTe

Abstract

We present ab initio and k.p calculations of the spin texture on the Fermi
surface of tensile strained HgTe, which is obtained by stretching the
zincblende lattice along the (111) axis. Tensile strained HgTe is a semimetal
with pointlike accidental degeneracies between a mirror symmetry protected
twofold degenerate band and two nondegenerate bands near the Fermi level. The
Fermi surface consists of two ellipsoids which contact at the point where the
Fermi level crosses the twofold degenerate band along the (111) axis. However,
the spin texture of occupied states indicates that neither ellipsoid carries a
compensating Chern number. Consequently, the spin texture is locked in the
plane perpendicular to the (111) axis, exhibits a nonzero winding number in
that plane, and changes winding number from one end of the Fermi ellipsoids to
the other. The change in the winding of the spin texture suggests the existence
of singular points. An ordered alloy of HgTe with ZnTe has the same effect as
stretching the zincblende lattice in the (111) direction. We present ab initio
calculations of ordered Hg_xZn_1-xTe that confirm the existence of a spin
texture locked in a 2D plane on the Fermi surface with different winding
numbers on either end.