Tunable high spin Chern-number insulator phases in strained Sb monolayer

High spin Chern-number insulators (HSCI) have emerged as a novel 2D topological phase of condensed matter that is beyond the classification of topological quantum chemistry. The HSCI phase with two pairs of gapless helical edge states is robust even in the presence of spin–orbit coupling due to the protection of a “hidden” feature spectrum topology. In this work, we report the observation of a semimetallic Sb monolayer carrying the same band topology as HSCI with the spin Chern number equal to 2. Our calculations further indicate a moderate lattice strain can make Sb monolayer an insulator or a semimetal with a tunable spin Chern number from 0 to 3. The results suggest strained Sb monolayers as a promising platform for exploring exotic properties of the HSCI topological matter.