Low-Energy Effective Hamiltonian for Giant-Gap Quantum Spin Hall Insulators in Honeycomb X-Hydride/Halide (X=N-Bi) Monolayers

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Using the tight-binding method in combination with first-principles calculations, we systematically derive a low-energy effective Hilbert subspace and Hamiltonian with spin-orbit coupling for two-dimensional hydrogenated and halogenated group-V monolayers. These materials are proposed to be giant-gap quantum spin Hall insulators with record huge bulk band gaps opened by the spin-orbit coupling at the Dirac points, e.g., from 0.74 to 1.08 eV in BiX (X = H, F, Cl, and Br) monolayers. We find that the low-energy Hilbert subspace mainly consists of pₓ and py orbitals from the group-V elements, and the giant first-order effective intrinsic spin-orbit coupling is from the on-site spin-orbit interaction. These features are quite distinct from those of group-IV monolayers such as graphene and silicene. There, the relevant orbital is pz and the effective intrinsic spin-orbit coupling is from the next-nearest-neighbor spin-orbit interaction processes. These systems represent the first real 2D honeycomb lattice materials in which the low-energy physics is associated with pₓ and py orbitals. A spinful lattice Hamiltonian with an on-site spin-orbit coupling term is also derived, which could facilitate further investigations of these intriguing topological materials.