Higher-order obstructed atomic insulator phase in pentagonal monolayer PdSe₂

Abstract We investigate a pentagonal monolayer of palladium diselenide, a stable two-dimensional system, as a material realization of a crystalline phase with nontrivial topological electronic properties. We find that its electronic structure involves an atomic obstructed insulator related to higher-order topology, which is a consequence of the selenium-selenium bond dimerization along with inversion and time-reversal symmetry). By means of first-principles calculations and the analysis of symmetry indicators and topological invariants, we also characterize the electronic corner states associated with the atomic obstruction and compute the corresponding corner charge for a finite geometry, which is found to be not quantized but still inversion-protected. Applying tensile strain to the finite geometry we verify the robustness of the corner states and also achieve a strain-controlled variation of the corner charge magnitude.