拓扑绝缘体及其研究进展

拓扑绝缘体是当前凝聚态物理领域中的一个热点问题.这类材料的典型特征是体内元激发存在能隙,但在边界上具有受拓扑保护的无能隙边缘激发.从广义上讲,拓扑绝缘体可以分两大类:一类是破坏时间反演的量子霍尔体系,另一类是新近发现的时间反演不变的拓扑绝缘体.这些新材料的奇特物理性质和潜在的应用前景,使其倍受人们关注.文章对这种新奇物态的物理性质和研究进展做了简要的介绍.     

铁磁石墨烯体系的CT不变量子自旋霍尔效应

文章作者在垂直磁场作用下的铁磁石墨烯体系里预言了一种新类型的量子自旋霍尔效应.这量子自旋霍尔效应与自旋轨道耦合无关,体系也不具有时间反演不变性;但是有CT不变（C为电子-空穴变换、T为时间反演变换）.由于量子自旋霍尔效应,体系的纵向电阻和自旋霍尔阻出现量子化平台.特别是,自旋霍尔阻的量子化平台有很强的抗杂质干扰能力.     

Quantum spin Hall effect in a square-lattice model under a uniform magnetic field

We study a toy square-lattice model under a uniform magnetic field. Using the Landauer-Bttiker formula, we calculate the transport properties of the system on a two-terminal, a four-terminal and a six-terminal device. We find that the quantum spin Hall (QSH) effect appears in energy ranges where the spin-up and spin-down subsystems have different filling factors. We also study the robustness of the resulting QSH effect and find that it is robust when the Fermi levels of both spin subsystems are far away from the energy plateaus but is fragile when the Fermi level of any spin subsystem is near the energy plateaus. These results provide an example of the QSH effect with a physical origin other than time-reversal (TR) preserving spin-orbit coupling (SOC).     

Topological states in quasicrystals

With the rapid development of topological states in crystals, the study of topological states has been extended to quasicrystals in recent years. In this review, we summarize the recent progress of topological states in quasicrystals, particularly focusing on one-dimensional (1D) and 2D systems. We first give a brief introduction to quasicrystalline structures. Then, we discuss topological phases in 1D quasicrystals where the topological nature is attributed to the synthetic dimensions associated with the quasiperiodic order of quasicrystals. We further present the generalization of various types of crystalline topological states to 2D quasicrystals, where real-space expressions of corresponding topological invariants are introduced due to the lack of translational symmetry in quasicrystals. Finally, since quasicrystals possess forbidden symmetries in crystals such as five-fold and eight-fold rotation, we provide an overview of unique quasicrystalline symmetry-protected topological states without crystalline counterpart.     

Topological insulator nanostructures and devices

Topological insulators＇ properties and their potential device applications are reviewed. We also explain why topologi- cal insulator （TI） nanostructnres are an important avenue for research and discuss some methods by which TI nanostructures are produced and characterized. The rapid development of high-quality TI nanostructures provides an ideal platform to ex- ploit salient physical phenomena that have been theoretically predicted but not yet experimentally realized.     

二维拓扑绝缘体退相干效应研究

拓扑绝缘体是当前凝聚态物理研究的热点.退相干效应对该体系的影响的研究不仅有重要的理论意义,而且也是实现未来量子器件的不可或缺的前期工作.文章作者从理论上研究了退相干对二维拓扑绝缘体特别是量子自旋霍尔效应的影响.研究结果表明,作为量子自旋霍尔效应的标志的量子化纵向电阻平台对不破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应（普通退相干）不敏感,但却对破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应（自旋退相干）非常敏感.因此,该量子化平台只能在尺寸小于自旋退相干长度的介观样品中存在,从而解释了量子自旋霍尔效应实验中所观测到的结果(见Science ,20     

Rashba自旋轨道耦合下square-octagon晶格的拓扑相变

本文研究了各向同性square-octagon晶格在内禀自旋轨道耦合、Rashba自旋轨道耦合和交换场作用下的拓扑相变,同时引入陈数和自旋陈数对系统进行拓扑分类.系统在自旋轨道耦合和交换场的影响下会出现许多拓扑非平庸态,包括时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态和量子反常霍尔态.特别的是,在时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔效应中,无能隙螺旋边缘态依然能够完好存在.调节交换场或者填充因子的大小会导致系统发生从时间反演对称破缺的量子自旋霍尔态到自旋过滤的量子反常霍尔态的拓扑相变.边缘态能谱和自旋谱的性质与陈数和自旋陈数的拓扑刻画完全一致.这些研究成果为自旋量子操控提供了一个有趣的途径.     

二维拓扑绝缘体退相干效应研究

拓扑绝缘体是当前凝聚态物理研究的热点.退相干效应对该体系的影响的研究不仅有重要的理论意义,而且也是实现未来量子器件的不可或缺的前期工作.文章作者从理论上研究了退相干对二维拓扑绝缘体特别是量子自旋霍尔效应的影响.研究结果表明,作为量子自旋霍尔效应的标志的量子化纵向电阻平台对不破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应(普通退相干)不敏感,但却对破坏自旋记忆的退相干效应(自旋退相干)非常敏感.因此,该量子化平台只能在尺寸小于自旋退相干长度的介观样品中存在,从而解释了量子自旋霍尔效应实验中所观测到的结果(见Science,2007,318:766).同时,文章作者还定义了一个新的物理量,即自旋霍尔电阻,并发现该自旋霍尔电阻也有量子化平台.特别是该量子化平台对两种类型的退相干都不敏感.这说明在宏观样品中也能观测到自旋霍尔电阻的量子化平台,因此更能全面地反映量子自旋霍尔效应的拓扑特性.     

拓扑绝缘体简介

拓扑绝缘体是最近几年发现的一种全新的物质形态,由于其独特的能带结构,具有零质量的狄拉克费米子及其相关的奇妙物理特性,近些年来引起了人们的广泛关注.同时,它还展现出在自旋电子学和量子计算等领域巨大的应用前景.     

Quantum spin Hall and quantum valley Hall effects in trilayer graphene and their topological structures

The present study pertains to the trilayer graphene in the presence of spin orbit coupling to probe the quantum spin/valley Hall effect. The spin Chern-number C_s for energy-bands of trilayer graphene having the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling is analytically calculated. We find that for each valley and spin, C_s is three times larger in trilayer graphene as compared to single layer graphene. Since the spin Chern-number corresponds to the number of edge states,consequently the trilayer graphene has edge states, three times more in comparison to single layer graphene. We also study the trilayer graphene in the presence of both electric-field and intrinsic spin–orbit coupling and investigate that the trilayer graphene goes through a phase transition from a quantum spin Hall state to a quantum valley Hall state when the strength of the electric field exceeds the intrinsic spin coupling strength. The robustness of the associated topological bulk-state of the trilayer graphene is evaluated by adding various perturbations such as Rashba spin–orbit(RSO) interaction αR, and exchange-magnetization M. In addition, we consider a theoretical model, where only one of the outer layers in trilayer graphene has the essence of intrinsic spin–orbit coupling, while the other two layers have zero intrinsic spin–orbit coupling.Although the first Chern number is non-zero for individual valleys of trilayer graphene in this model, however, we find that the system cannot be regarded as a topological insulator because the system as a whole is not gaped.     

从磁性掺杂拓扑绝缘体到内禀磁性拓扑绝缘体——通往高温量子反常霍尔效应之路

量子反常霍尔效应被认为是已知的拓扑量子效应中最有希望获得广泛实际应用的一个。阻碍其应用的主要障碍是其很低的实现温度。文章介绍了在磁性拓扑绝缘体中量子反常霍尔效应的机理和决定其实现温度的因素,回顾了过去几年在提高量子反常霍尔效应实现温度方面的研究进展,尤其是最近内禀磁性拓扑绝缘体MnBi₂Te₄的相关工作。在此基础上提出在磁性拓扑绝缘体系统中进一步提高量子反常霍尔效应温度的路线图。

     

Electronic structures and topological properties of TeSe2 monolayers

The successfully experimental fabrication of two-dimensional Te monolayer films [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 106101 (2017)] has promoted the researches on the group-VI monolayer materials. In this work, the electronic structures and topological properties of a group-VI binary compound of TeSe₂ monolayers are studied based on the density functional theory and Wannier function method. Three types of structures, namely, α-TeSe₂, β-TeSe₂, and γ-TeSe₂, are proposed for the TeSe₂ monolayer among which the α-TeSe₂ is found being the most stable. All the three structures are semiconductors with indirect band gaps. Very interestingly, the γ-TeSe₂ monolayer becomes a quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator with a global nontrivial energy gap of 0.14 eV when a 3.5% compressive strain is applied. The opening of the global band gap is understood by the competition between the decrease of the local band dispersion and the weakening of the interactions between the Se p_x, p_y orbitals and Te p_x, p_y orbitals during the process. Our work realizes topological states in the group-VI monolayers and promotes the potential applications of the materials in spintronics and quantum computations.     

Topological insulating phase for anti-Hermitian Hamiltonians

We study classification of anti-Hermitian topological insulators based on the discrete symmetries: time-reversal, particle-hole and chiral symmetries. Contrary to the most general form of non-Hermitian systems, bulk boundary correspondence can hold in anti-Hermitian topological systems. We map a topologically nontrivial Hermitian Hamiltonians into an anti-Hermitian system and we show that the standard table of topological insulators can be used for anti-Hermitian Hamiltonians.     

From magnetically doped topological insulator to the quantum anomalous Hall effect

Quantum Hall effect （QHE）, as a class of quantum phenomena that occur in macroscopic scale, is one of the most important topics in condensed matter physics. It has long been expected that QHE may occur without Landau levels so that neither external magnetic field nor high sample mobility is required for its study and application, Such a QHE free of Landau levels, can appear in topological insulators （TIs） with ferromagnetism as the quantized version of the anomalous Hall effect, i.e., quantum anomalous Hall （QAH） effect. Here we review our recent work on experimental realization of the QAH effect in magnetically doped TIs. With molecular beam epitaxy, we prepare thin films of Cr-doped （Bi,Sb）2Te3 TIs with well- controlled chemical potential and long-range ferromagnetic order that can survive the insulating phase. In such thin films, we eventually observed the quantization of the Hall resistance at h/e2 at zero field, accompanied by a considerable drop in the longitudinal resistance. Under a strong magnetic field, the longitudinal resistance vanishes, whereas the Hall resistance remains at the quantized value. The realization of the QAH effect provides a foundation for many other novel quantum phenomena predicted in TIs, and opens a route to practical applications of quantum Hall physics in low-power-consumption electronics.     

Topological Insulators in α-Graphyne

In this paper, we investigate topological phases of α-graphyne with tight-binding method. By calculating the topological invariant Z2 and the edge states, we identify topological insulators. We present the phase diagrams of α-graphyne with different filling fractions as a function of spin-orbit interaction and the nearest-neighbor hopping energy. We find there exist topological insulators in α-graphyne. We analyze and discuss the characteristics of topological phases of α-graphyne.     

Spin textures of strongly correlated spin Hall quantum dots

We study the spin ordering of a quantum dot defined via magnetic barriers in an interacting quantum spin Hall edge. The spin‐resolved density–density correlation functions are computed. We show that strong electron interactions induce a ground state with a highly correlated spin pattern. The crossover from the liquid‐type correlations at weak interactions to the ground state spin texture found at strong interactions parallels the formation of a one‐dimensional Wigner molecule in an ordinary strongly interacting quantum dot.

     

二维光/声学拓扑态

文章主要介绍光/声学拓扑态的基本概念和研究背景,评述了这一领域中二维体系研究的进展。首先简要回顾了霍尔效应及其与贝利曲率和对称性的关系,接着综合分析了不同对称性条件下的光和声拓扑态,包括光/声量子霍尔效应、Floquet拓扑绝缘体、量子自旋霍尔效应的相关工作,最后讨论了该领域可能的发展方向和前景。