Surface-state spin textures in strained bulk HgTe: Strain-induced topological phase transitions

The opening of a band gap due to compressive uniaxial strain renders bulk HgTe a strong three-dimensional topological insulator with protected gapless surface states at any surface. By employing a six-band k . p model, we determine the spin textures of the topological surface states of bulk HgTe uniaxially strained along the (100) direction. We show that at the (010) and (001) surfaces, an increase in the strain magnitude triggers a topological phase transition where the winding number of the surface-state spin texture is flipped while the four topological invariants characterizing the bulk band structure of the material are unchanged.