Stability of the X-Y phase of the two-dimensional C-4 point group insulator

Abstract

Noninteracting insulating electronic states of matter can be classified according to their symmetries in terms of topological invariants which can be related to effective surface theories. These effective surface theories are in turn topologically protected against the effects of disorder. Topological crystalline insulators are, on the other hand, trivial in the sense of the above classification but still possess surface modes. In this paper we consider an extension of the Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model that describes a point group insulator. We explicitly show that the surface properties of this state can be as robust as in topologically nontrivial insulators but only if the S-z component of the spin is conserved. However, in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling this protection vanishes, and the surface states localize, even if the crystalline symmetries are intact on average.