Title: Pressure driven Weyl-topological insulator phase transition in Weyl semimetal SrSi₂
Author(s):

	Aditya Shende (Department of Physics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, S Ambazari Road, Nagpur, 440010, Maharashtra, India),
	Shivendra Kumar Gupta (Department of Physics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, S Ambazari Road, Nagpur, 440010, Maharashtra, India),
	Ashish Kore (Department of Physics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, S Ambazari Road, Nagpur, 440010, Maharashtra, India),
	Poorva Singh (Department of Physics, Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, S Ambazari Road, Nagpur, 440010, Maharashtra, India)

Using DFT-based first-principles calculations, we demonstrate the tuning of the electronic structure of Weyl semimetal SrSi₂ via external uniaxial strain. The uniaxial strain facilitates the opening of bandgap along Γ-X direction and subsequent band inversion between Si p and Sr d orbitals. Z₂ invariants and surface states reveal conclusively that SrSi₂ under uniaxial strain is a strong topological insulator. Hence, uniaxial strain drives the semimetallic SrSi₂ into fully gapped topological insulating state depicting a semimetal to topological insulator phase transition. Our results highlight the suitability of uniaxial strain to gain control over the topological phase transitions and topological states in SrSi₂.

Key words: topological semimetal, topological insulator, density functional theory, electronic structure, phase transition

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