Advances on jacutingaite ( Pt 2 HgSe 3 )-based materials: Natural mineral to tunable topological phases

Jacutingaite, Pt 2 HgSe 3 , has emerged as a model van der Waals material linking mineralogy, solid-state chemistry, and topological quantum physics. Single crystals of bulk Pt 2 HgSe 3 experimentally synthesized under high-pressure and high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy reveal a gapped Dirac nodal-line structure along with the surface states with multiple saddle points and van Hove singularities. Furthermore, under hydrostatic pressure, transport measurements show a structure phase transition accompanied by superconductivity, with T c reaching approximately 4.4 K at 88.8 GPa. Density functional theory calculations predict bulk Pt 2 HgSe 3 to possess dual topology, characterized by weak Z 2 topology and mirror-symmetry-protected crystalline topology. Monolayer Pt 2 HgSe 3 was predicted to realize a Kane–Mele-type quantum spin Hall state with a spin-orbit induced gap of ∼ 0.15 – 0.5 eV , a result supported by early experimental signatures. Other theoretical studies predicted that the electronic structure and topological properties can be tuned by layer thickness, strain, electric fields, and pressures. Bilayers are shown to be initially trivial due to layer-internal inversion asymmetry, but with encapsulation within hexagonal boron nitride undergoes an electronically driven topological phase transition which narrows the trivial band gap, and a modest out-of-plane electric field reinverts the bands to restore their topology, though these mechanisms remain to be verified experimentally. This research update consolidates the theoretical and experimental advances across bulk, monolayer, and bilayer forms, with a particular focus on chemical doping, heterostructure engineering, and pressure-induced superconductivity, the last of which has been experimentally observed in bulk Pt 2 HgSe 3 . Benchmark values such as band gaps, valley splittings, and critical temperatures are summarized to provide a reference for ongoing studies. We evaluate the prospects of jacutingaite-based materials for realizing quantum spin Hall, quantum anomalous Hall, and topological superconducting states with the major challenges associated with their synthesis, structural stability, and device integration. This study brings together the experimentally established properties and theoretically predicted tunability and highlights strategic directions for advancing jacutingaite-based systems toward practical applications in spintronics, valleytronics, and emerging quantum technologies.