skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Topological insulators, topological superconductors and Weyl fermion semimetals: discoveries, perspectives and outlooks

Journal Article · · Physica Scripta

Here, unlike string theory, topological physics in lower dimensional condensed matter systems is an experimental reality since the bulk-boundary correspondence can be probed experimentally in lower dimensions. In addition, recent experimental discoveries of non-quantum-Hall-like topological insulators, topological superconductors, Weyl semimetals and other topological states of matter also signal a clear departure from the quantum-Hall-effect-like transport paradigm that has dominated the field since the 1980s. It is these new forms of matter that enabled realizations of topological-Dirac, Weyl cones, helical-Cooper-pairs, Fermi-arc-quasiparticles and other emergent phenomena in fine-tuned photoemission (ARPES) experiments since ARPES experiments directly allow the study of bulk-boundary (topological) correspondence. In this proceeding we provide a brief overview of the key experiments and discuss our perspectives regarding the new research frontiers enabled by these experiments. Taken collectively, we argue in favor of the emergence of 'topological-condensed-matter-physics' in laboratory experiments for which a variety of theoretical concepts over the last 80 years paved the way.

Research Organization:
Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-07ER46352
OSTI ID:
1434895
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1239037
Journal Information:
Physica Scripta, Vol. T164; ISSN 0031-8949
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 119 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (140)

Colloquium: Topological insulators journal November 2010
Topological insulators journal February 2011
The quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators journal January 2010
Three-Dimensional Topological Insulators journal March 2011
Topological insulators and superconductors journal October 2011
Topological Surface States: A New Type of 2D Electron Systems book January 2013
Models and Materials for Topological Insulators book January 2013
Quantum anomalous Hall effect journal December 2013
Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission of Strongly Spin–Orbit Coupled Systems journal February 2013
Topological Insulator Materials journal October 2013
Topological phases and the quantum spin Hall effect in three dimensions journal May 2009
Superconducting Proximity Effect and Majorana Fermions at the Surface of a Topological Insulator journal March 2008
Topological invariants of time-reversal-invariant band structures journal March 2007
Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions journal March 2007
A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase journal April 2008
Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells journal November 2007
Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells journal December 2006
New Method for High-Accuracy Determination of the Fine-Structure Constant Based on Quantized Hall Resistance journal August 1980
Two-Dimensional Magnetotransport in the Extreme Quantum Limit journal May 1982
Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential journal August 1982
Model for a Quantum Hall Effect without Landau Levels: Condensed-Matter Realization of the "Parity Anomaly" journal October 1988
Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Graphene journal November 2005
Topological insulators with inversion symmetry journal July 2007
Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators journal February 2009
Observation of a large-gap topological-insulator class with a single Dirac cone on the surface journal May 2009
Topological insulators in Bi2Se3, Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 with a single Dirac cone on the surface journal May 2009
A tunable topological insulator in the spin helical Dirac transport regime journal July 2009
Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator, Bi2Te3 journal June 2009
Observation of Time-Reversal-Protected Single-Dirac-Cone Topological-Insulator States in Bi 2 Te 3 and Sb 2 Te 3 journal September 2009
Observation of topological order in a superconducting doped topological insulator journal September 2010
Tunable multifunctional topological insulators in ternary Heusler compounds journal May 2010
Half-Heusler ternary compounds as new multifunctional experimental platforms for topological quantum phenomena journal May 2010
Single-Dirac-Cone Topological Surface States in the TlBiSe 2 Class of Topological Semiconductors journal July 2010
A topological insulator surface under strong Coulomb, magnetic and disorder perturbations journal December 2010
Topological Phase Transition and Texture Inversion in a Tunable Topological Insulator journal March 2011
Topological surface states and Dirac point tuning in ternary topological insulators journal June 2012
Hedgehog spin texture and Berry’s phase tuning in a magnetic topological insulator journal June 2012
Topological crystalline insulator states in Pb1−xSnxSe journal September 2012
Observation of a topological crystalline insulator phase and topological phase transition in Pb1−xSnxTe journal January 2012
Experimental realization of a topological crystalline insulator in SnTe journal September 2012
Erratum: Crossover of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi2Se3 to the two-dimensional limit journal September 2010
Massive Dirac Fermion on the Surface of a Magnetically Doped Topological Insulator journal August 2010
Experimental Realization of a Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator Phase in Ternary Chalcogenide TlBiSe 2 journal September 2010
Direct Measurement of the Out-of-Plane Spin Texture in the Dirac-Cone Surface State of a Topological Insulator journal May 2011
Widespread spin polarization effects in photoemission from topological insulators journal October 2011
Image-guided radiotherapy platform using single nodule conditional lung cancer mouse models journal December 2014
Unexpected mass acquisition of Dirac fermions at the quantum phase transition of a topological insulator journal August 2011
Atom-specific spin mapping and buried topological states in a homologous series of topological insulators journal January 2012
Surface Scattering via Bulk Continuum States in the 3D Topological Insulator Bi 2 Se 3 journal July 2011
Topological-Metal to Band-Insulator Transition in ( Bi 1 x In x ) 2 Se 3 Thin Films journal October 2012
Circular dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of topological insulators journal January 2013
Oscillatory surface dichroism of the insulating topological insulator Bi 2 Te 2 Se journal October 2013
Surface and bulk electronic structure of the strongly correlated system SmB 6 and implications for a topological Kondo insulator journal September 2013
Surface electronic structure of the topological Kondo-insulator candidate correlated electron system SmB6 journal December 2013
Observation of possible topological in-gap surface states in the Kondo insulator SmB6 by photoemission journal December 2013
Observation of quantum-tunnelling-modulated spin texture in ultrathin topological insulator Bi2Se3 films journal May 2014
Discovery of a Three-Dimensional Topological Dirac Semimetal, Na3Bi journal January 2014
Observation of a three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal phase in high-mobility Cd3As2 journal May 2014
A stable three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 journal May 2014
Fermi-level electronic structure of a topological-insulator/cuprate-superconductor based heterostructure in the superconducting proximity effect regime journal August 2014
Absence of a Proximity Effect for a Thin-Films of a Bi 2 Se 3 Topological Insulator Grown on Top of a Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8 + δ Cuprate Superconductor journal August 2014
Angle-resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Study on the Surface States of the Correlated Topological Insulator YbB6 journal August 2014
Non-Kondo-like Electronic Structure in the Correlated Rare-Earth Hexaboride Y b B 6 journal January 2015
Observation of topological surface state quantum Hall effect in an intrinsic three-dimensional topological insulator journal November 2014
Momentum-space imaging of Cooper pairing in a half-Dirac-gas topological superconductor journal November 2014
Observation of Fermi arc surface states in a topological metal journal December 2014
Topological surface states protected from backscattering by chiral spin texture journal August 2009
Experimental Demonstration of Topological Surface States Protected by Time-Reversal Symmetry journal December 2009
Landau Quantization of Topological Surface States in Bi 2 Se 3 journal August 2010
Momentum-resolved Landau-level spectroscopy of Dirac surface state in Bi 2 Se 3 journal August 2010
Spatial fluctuations of helical Dirac fermions on the surface of topological insulators journal October 2011
Direct Observation of Broken Time-Reversal Symmetry on the Surface of a Magnetically Doped Topological Insulator journal May 2011
Observation of Dirac Node Formation and Mass Acquisition in a Topological Crystalline Insulator journal August 2013
Mapping the unconventional orbital texture in topological crystalline insulators journal July 2014
Landau quantization and quasiparticle interference in the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 journal June 2014
Quantum Oscillations and Hall Anomaly of Surface States in the Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 journal July 2010
Two-dimensional surface state in the quantum limit of a topological insulator journal November 2010
Aharonov–Bohm interference in topological insulator nanoribbons journal December 2009
Surface State Transport and Ambipolar Electric Field Effect in Bi2Se3Nanodevices journal December 2010
Gate-Voltage Control of Chemical Potential and Weak Antilocalization in Bi 2 Se 3 journal October 2010
Fermi level tuning and a large activation gap achieved in the topological insulator Bi 2 Te 2 Se by Sn doping journal April 2012
Electron interaction-driven insulating ground state in Bi 2 Se 3 topological insulators in the two-dimensional limit journal April 2011
Evidence for electron-electron interaction in topological insulator thin films journal June 2011
Surface conduction of topological Dirac electrons in bulk insulating Bi2Se3 journal April 2012
Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator journal March 2013
Low-temperature surface conduction in the Kondo insulator SmB 6 journal November 2013
Nonlinear Optical Probe of Tunable Surface Electrons on a Topological Insulator journal February 2011
Ultrafast Optical Excitation of a Persistent Surface-State Population in the Topological Insulator Bi 2 Se 3 journal March 2012
Control over topological insulator photocurrents with light polarization journal December 2011
Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators journal November 2008
Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators journal June 2010
Topological Crystalline Insulators journal March 2011
Topological crystalline insulators in the SnTe material class journal January 2012
Emergent Space-Time Supersymmetry at the Boundary of a Topological Phase journal April 2014
Theory of quasiparticle interference in mirror-symmetric two-dimensional systems and its application to surface states of topological crystalline insulators journal September 2013
Large-Chern-Number Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Thin-Film Topological Crystalline Insulators journal January 2014
Spin-filtered edge states with an electrically tunable gap in a two-dimensional topological crystalline insulator journal December 2013
Strain-induced partially flat band, helical snake states and interface superconductivity in topological crystalline insulators journal November 2014
Spin-Orbit-Free Topological Insulators without Time-Reversal Symmetry journal September 2014
Band Structure and Laser Action in Pb x Sn 1 x Te journal June 1966
Nonabelions in the fractional quantum hall effect journal August 1991
Fault-tolerant quantum computation by anyons journal January 2003
Periodic table for topological insulators and superconductors
  • Kitaev, Alexei; Lebedev, Vladimir; Feigel’man, Mikhail
  • ADVANCES IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS: Landau Memorial Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3149495
conference January 2009
Classification of topological insulators and superconductors in three spatial dimensions journal November 2008
Classification of Topological Insulators and Superconductors
  • Schnyder, Andreas P.; Ryu, Shinsei; Furusaki, Akira
  • ADVANCES IN THEORETICAL PHYSICS: Landau Memorial Conference, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3149481
conference January 2009
Time-Reversal-Invariant Topological Superconductors and Superfluids in Two and Three Dimensions journal May 2009
Chiral superconductivity from repulsive interactions in doped graphene journal January 2012
Engineering a p + ip superconductor: Comparison of topological insulator and Rashba spin-orbit-coupled materials journal May 2011
Generic New Platform for Topological Quantum Computation Using Semiconductor Heterostructures journal January 2010
Majorana Modes at the Ends of Superconductor Vortices in Doped Topological Insulators journal August 2011
Superconductivity in Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 and its Implications for Pairing in the Undoped Topological Insulator journal February 2010
Topological Superconductivity in Cu x Bi 2 Se 3 journal November 2011
Proximity-induced superconductivity in topological Bi 2 Te 2 Se and Bi 2 Se 3 films: Robust zero-energy bound state possibly due to Majorana fermions journal December 2011
Strong Superconducting Proximity Effect in Pb-Bi2Te3 Hybrid Structures journal March 2012
Symmetry protected Josephson supercurrents in three-dimensional topological insulators journal April 2013
Artificial Topological Superconductor by the Proximity Effect journal May 2014
Signatures of Majorana Fermions in Hybrid Superconductor-Semiconductor Nanowire Devices journal April 2012
Zero-Bias Peaks in the Tunneling Conductance of Spin-Orbit-Coupled Superconducting Wires with and without Majorana End-States journal December 2012
Topologically trivial zero-bias conductance peak in semiconductor Majorana wires from boundary effects journal July 2013
Superconductor-nanowire devices from tunneling to the multichannel regime: Zero-bias oscillations and magnetoconductance crossover journal June 2013
Spin-resolved Andreev levels and parity crossings in hybrid superconductor–semiconductor nanostructures journal December 2013
Elektron und Gravitation. I journal May 1929
Weyl electrons kiss journal May 2011
Why Are There Analogies Between Condensed Matter and Particle Theory? journal January 1998
The Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly and Weyl fermions in a crystal journal November 1983
Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates journal May 2011
Weyl Semimetal in a Topological Insulator Multilayer journal September 2011
Topological electronic structure and Weyl semimetal in the TlBiSe 2 class of semiconductors journal September 2012
Weyl semimetals from noncentrosymmetric topological insulators journal October 2014
Topological response in Weyl semimetals and the chiral anomaly journal September 2012
Chiral anomaly and classical negative magnetoresistance of Weyl metals journal September 2013
Chiral gauge field and axial anomaly in a Weyl semimetal journal June 2013
Probing the Chiral Anomaly with Nonlocal Transport in Three-Dimensional Topological Semimetals journal September 2014
Excitonic Phases from Weyl Semimetals journal November 2012
Magneto-optical conductivity of Weyl semimetals journal June 2013
Friedel oscillations due to Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals journal November 2012
Helical Fermi arcs and surface states in time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetals journal June 2013
Quantum oscillations from surface Fermi arcs in Weyl and Dirac semimetals journal October 2014
Phase transition between the quantum spin Hall and insulator phases in 3D: emergence of a topological gapless phase journal September 2007
Time-reversal-invariant topological superconductivity in doped Weyl semimetals journal July 2014