Topological insulators on the Lieb and perovskite lattices

Abstract

Electrons hopping on the sites of a two-dimensional Lieb lattice and three-dimensional edge centered cubic (perovskite) lattice are shown to form topologically non-trivial insulating phases when spin-orbit coupling is introduced. These simple models on lattices with cubic symmetry show a Dirac-like structure in the excitation spectrum but with the unusual feature that there is a dispersionless band through the center of the spectrum and only a single Dirac cone per Brillouin zone.