Strain induced topological phase transitions in split and line graphs of bipartite lattices featuring flat bands

In recent years, materials with topological flat bands have attracted significant attention due to their association with extraordinary transport properties and strongly correlated electrons. This includes phenomena such as high-temperature superconductivity, magnetism, Wigner crystallization, and Mott-insulating behavior. Among these systems, two-dimensional (2D) materials are particularly compelling as they can host electronic states with unique band structures, such as dispersionless states alongside linearly dispersive Dirac cones. In this work, we use tight-binding models to comprehensively investigate a class of 2D lattices that generically support flat bands, and focus on the effects of strain on their electronic and topological properties. The studied lattices are constructed within a unifying graph-theoretic framework, whereupon split-graph and line-graph operations on bipartite square and hexagonal lattices are employed to generate new structures. In the absence of strain, the introduction of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) induces a bulk excitation gap, which transforms flat bands into quasi-flat bands with topologically nontrivial characteristics. By tuning system parameters and external strain, we observe the emergence of directional flat bands, and tilted and semi-Dirac cones. Remarkably, all lattices studied show phase transitions among trivial insulating, semimetallic, and topological phases. Our results highlight the potential of strain engineering as a versatile tool for manipulating electronic and topological phases in a wide variety of 2D materials.
Comment: Keywords: Flat bands, strongly correlated electrons, topological phase transitions, graph theory, 2D materials