Topological insulator with negative spin-orbit coupling and transition between Weyl and Dirac semimetals in InGaN-based quantum wells

We study the influence of negative spin-orbit coupling on the topological phase transition and properties of the topological insulator state in InGaN-based quantum wells grown along c axis of the wurtzite lattice. The realistic eight-band k·p method with relativistic and nonrelativistic linear-k terms is employed. Our calculations show that the negative spin-orbit coupling in InN is not an obstacle to obtain the topological insulator phase in InN/InGaN and InGaN/GaN quantum wells. The bulk energy gap in the topological insulator state can reach 2 meV, which allows experimental verification of the edge state transport in these materials. The topological phase transition occurs due to the band inversion between the highest light hole subband and the lowest conduction subband, and almost always is mediated by the two-dimensional Weyl semimetal, arising from an anticrossing of these subbands at zero in-plane wave vector. However, for certain InGaN/GaN quantum wells, we find that the magnitude of this anticrossing vanishes, leading to the appearance of the Dirac semimetal. The novel transition between the Weyl and Dirac semimetals originates from vanishing of the average in-plane spin-orbit interaction parameter, which decouples the conduction subband from the light hole subband at zero in-plane wave vector.