Chiral topological excitons in a Chern band insulator

A family of semiconductors called Chern band insulators are shown to host exciton bands with nonzero topological Chern integers and chiral exciton edge modes. Using a prototypical two-band Chern insulator model, we calculate a cross-correlation function to obtain the exciton bands and their Chern integers. The lowest exciton band acquires Chern integers such as +/- 1 and +/- 2 in the electronic Chern insulator phase. The nontrivial topology can be experimentally observed both by a nonlocal optoelectronic response of exciton edge modes and by a phase shift in the cross-correlation response due to the bulk mode. Our result suggests that magnetically doped HgTe, InAs/GaSb quantum wells, and (Bi,Sb)(2)Te-3 thin films are promising candidates for a platform of topological excitonics.