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Quantum spin Hall (QSH) materials promise revolutionary device applicationsbased on dissipationless propagation of spin currents. They are two-dimensional(2D) representatives of the family of topological insulators, which exhibitconduction channels at their edges inherently protected against scattering.Initially predicted for graphene, and eventually realized in HgTe quantumwells, in the QSH systems realized so far, the decisive bottleneck preventingapplications is the small bulk energy gap of less than 30 meV, requiringcryogenic operation temperatures in order to suppress detrimental bulkcontributions to the edge conductance. Room-temperature functionalities,however, require much larger gaps. Here we show how this can be achieved bymaking use of a new QSH paradigm based on substrate-supported atomic monolayersof a high-Z element. Experimentally, the material is synthesized as honeycomblattice of bismuth atoms, forming "bismuthene", on top of the wide-gapsubstrate SiC(0001). Consistent with the theoretical expectations, thespectroscopic signatures in experiment display a huge gap of ~0.8 eV inbismuthene, as well as conductive edge states. The analysis of thelayer-substrate orbitals arrives at a QSH phase, whose topological gap - as ahallmark mechanism - is driven directly by the atomic spin-orbit coupling(SOC). Our results demonstrate how strained artificial lattices of heavy atoms,in contact with an insulating substrate, can be utilized to evoke a noveltopological wide-gap scenario, where the chemical potential is located wellwithin the global system gap, ensuring pure edge state conductance. Weanticipate future experiments on topological signatures, such as transportmeasurements that probe the QSH effect via quantized universal conductance,notably at room temperature.

Bismuthene on a SiC Substrate: A Candidate for a New High-Temperature Quantum Spin Hall Paradigm