Phonon induced topological phase transition in ZrTe₅

Layered crystalline material ZrTe₅ is a unique material to study topological phase transitions; it is very close to the phase boundary between a weak and strong topological insulator (TI) and one can switch from one phase to another by small perturbations like strain. Recently, photoinduced topological transition from the TI regime to the Dirac semimetallic phase has been reported in this material. Motivated by the aforementioned work, using first-principles calculations and effective model Hamiltonian, we study the transition from the TI regime to the Dirac and Weyl semimetallic phases induced by various phonon
modes. The experimental implications of our results are also discussed.