Related papers: Nanomechanical topological insulators with an auxi…
Efficient control of phonons is crucial to energy-information technology, but limited by the lacking of tunable degrees of freedom like charge or spin. Here we suggest to utilize crystalline symmetry-protected pseudospins as new quantum…
The discovery that the band structure of electronic insulators may be topologically non-trivial has unveiled distinct phases of electronic matter with novel properties. Recently, mechanical lattices have been found to have similarly rich…
The possibility of realizing topological insulators by spontaneous formation of electronic superstructure is theoretically investigated in a minimal two-orbital model including both the spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations on a…
Topological phases of matter are among the most intriguing research directions in Condensed Matter Physics. It is known that superconductivity induced on a topological insulator's surface can lead to exotic Majorana modes, the main…
The possible existence of topological insulators in cubic pyrochlore iridates A$_{2}$Ir$_{2}$O$_{7}$ (A = Y or rare-earth elements) is investigated by taking into account the strong spin-orbit coupling and trigonal crystal field effect. It…
Spin-orbital textures in topological insulators due to the spin locking with the electron momentum, play an important role in spintronic phenomena that arise from the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom. We have explored…
The rich physical properties of multiatomic molecules and crystalline structures are determined, to a significant extent, by the underlying geometry and connectivity of atomic orbitals. This orbital degree of freedom has also been used…
Topological phases usually are unreachable in molecular solids, which are characteristic of weakly dispersed energy bands with a large gap, in contrast to topological materials. In this work, however, we propose that nontrivial electronic…
We propose a realization of a two-dimensional higher-order topological insulator with ultracold atoms loaded into orbital angular momentum (OAM) states of an optical lattice. The symmetries of the OAM states induce relative phases in the…
The unrelated discoveries of quasicrystals and topological insulators have in turn challenged prevailing paradigms in condensed-matter physics. We find a surprising connection between quasicrystals and topological phases of matter: (i)…
The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been recently discovered in experiment using thin-film topological insulator with ferromagnetic ordering and strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we investigate the spin degree of freedom of a QAH…
The discovery of the topological insulators has fueled a surge of interests in the topological phases in periodic systems. Topological insulators have bulk energy gap and topologically protected gapless edge states. The edge states in…
Orbital degree of freedom plays a fundamental role in understanding the unconventional properties in solid state materials. Experimental progress in quantum atomic gases has demonstrated that high orbitals in optical lattices can be used to…
The ability to fine-tune band gap and band inversion in topological materials is highly desirable for the development of novel functional devices. Here we propose that the electronic properties of a free-standing nanomembrane of topological…
We discuss recent advances in the study of topological insulators protected by spatial symmetries by reviewing three representative, theoretical examples. In three dimensions, these states of matter are generally characterized by the…
Thermoelectric devices at the nanoscale offer promising routes for on-chip refrigeration and waste-heat recovery, yet most semiconductor-based implementations suffer from limited tunability and narrow operational ranges. We introduce a…
Topological insulators represent a new state of quantum matter attractive to both fundamental physics and technological applications such as spintronics and quantum information processing. In a topological insulator, the bulk energy gap is…
Tuning the spin-orbit coupling strength via foreign element doping and/or modifying bonding strength via strain engineering are the major routes to convert normal insulators to topological insulators. We here propose an alternative strategy…
We demonstrate theoretically an atomic liquid phase that supports topologically nontrivial electronic structure. A minimum two-orbital model of liquid topological insulator in two dimensions is constructed within the framework of…
Crystalline topological insulators have recently become a powerful platform for realizing photonic topological states from microwaves to the visible. Appropriate geometric symmetries of the lattice are at the core of their functionality.…