First principle study of topological phase transition in 2D 1T′-WTe₂ bulk monolayer with the application of vertical electric field

We investigate quantum spin hall properties of 1T′-WTe<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf> with spin orbit coupling. The up spin and down spin orbital bands are degenerate. After applying an electric field, the up spin and down spin bands split from each other. We observe the phase transition from topological insulator to trivial insulator due to electric field, which is very important for the use of the material as channel material in field effect transistors. All calculations are conducted using density functional theory and maximally localized wannier functions.