{
  "abstract": "The emergence of two-dimensional topological materials, particularly the group-14 monolayers known as silicene, germanene, and stanene has opened promising pathways for next-generation nanoelectronics and spintronics. Their buckled honeycomb structure and strong spin-orbit coupling allow for bandgap engineering via a perpendicular electric field, leading to topological phase transitions (TPTs) from non-trivial to trivial insulating states. However, precise determination of the critical electric field $E_z^{\\text{cr}}$ at which these transitions occur remains challenging, with tight-binding models often underestimating these values. Here, we present a first-principles framework that combines density-functional theory (DFT), maximally localized Wannier functions, and evolution of the Wannier charge centers (WCC) to accurately characterize TPTs in silicene, germanene, and stanene through the $\\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant. In contrast to earlier work, at each electric-field strength we run fully self-consistent ab initio simulations to obtain the screened electronic structure, accounting for the material's dielectric response from both electrons and ions. From these converged results we construct a Wannier tight-binding Hamiltonian at each electric field strength, which then enables a gauge-invariant calculation of the $\\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological invariant. This methodology yields significantly more accurate numerical predictions of $E_z^{\\text{cr}}$, $0.020$ and $0.250$ V/Å for silicene and germanene, respectively. Compared to previous approaches, our framework delivers a marked quantitative improvement for predicting topological phase boundaries, essential for guiding the design of topological field-effect transistors and electrostatically controlled quantum devices based on two-dimensional materials.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2609.05633",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Julián Antonio Villarreal Murúa"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pablo Roura-Bas"
    },
    {
      "name": "Javier Daniel Fuhr"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ricardo Faccio"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqbc41fhgh2ew.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2609.05633",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "cqbc41fhgh2ew",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05633",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.mes-hall"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.mtrl-sci"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2609.05633",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-04",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqbc41fhgh2ew.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
      "native_id": "2609.05633",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.05633"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.mes-hall",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "First principles calculations of electric-field-driven topological phase transitions in silicene, germanene and stanene",
  "title_text": "First principles calculations of electric-field-driven topological phase transitions in silicene, germanene and stanene",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cqbc41fhgh2ew",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.1088/1361-648x/ae9e75",
      "pid": null,
      "relation": "published-as",
      "title": null,
      "venue": null
    }
  ]
}