The spin current density functional theory (SCDFT) is the generalization of the standard DFT to treat a fermionic system embedded in the effective external field produced by the spin-orbit coupling interaction. Even in the absence of a spin polarization, the SCDFT requires the electron-electron potential to depend on the spin currents ${\mathbf{J}}^x, {\mathbf{J}}^y$, and ${\mathbf{J}}^z$, which only recently was made possible for practical relativistic quantum-mechanical simulations, through the inclusion of a fraction of nonlocal Fock exchange into local-density or generalized-gradient density functional approximations [J. K. Desmarais, J.-P. Flament, and A. Erba, Phys. Rev. B 102, 235118 (2020)]. Here, we apply the SCDFT to the quantum spin Hall phase and show how it improves (even qualitatively) the description of its electronic features relative to the DFT. We study the Bi (001) 2D bilayer and its band insulator to topological insulator phase transition (via $s+p_z\leftrightarrow p_x+i{p}_y$ band inversion) as a function of mechanical strain. We show that the explicit account of spin currents in the electron-electron potential of the SCDFT is key to the appearance of a Dirac cone at the $\mathrm{\Gamma }$ point in the valence band structure at the onset of the topological phase transition. Finally, the valence band structure of this system is rationalized using a simple first-order $\mathbf{k}·\mathbf{p}$ quasidegenerate perturbation theory model.

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• Dirac fermions
• Spin-orbit coupling
• Topological materials
• 2-dimensional systems
• Band structure methods
• Density functional theory development