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

Title: The Dirac equation as a model of topological insulators

Journal Article · · Philosophical Magazine (2003, Print)
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
  2. Drexel Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)

The Dirac equation with a spatially dependent mass can be used as a simple, exactly soluble, continuum model of a three-dimensional Topological Insulator. For a bulk system, the sign of the mass determines the parity at the only time-reversal point ( k _ = 0 ) and, thus, leads to the designation of the bulk as being topologically trivial or non-trivial. Since the mass changes sign at the interface between a topologically trivial and non-trivial materials, topological surface states appear on that boundary. We present that electron scattering experiments may provide an alternate probe of the topological character of the surface states. For infinitely thick slabs, the states on the opposite sides of the slab decouple. The spatial decoupling results in the surface states become gapless, non-degenerate and, due to the Rashba spin–orbit coupling generated by the loss of inversion symmetry, exhibit spin-momentum locking. We review several characteristic properties of the topological surface states which are dependent on the topological quantum numbers and show that, using this model, they can be calculated exactly using simple approaches.

Research Organization:
Temple Univ., Philadelphia, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-01ER45872
OSTI ID:
1617902
Journal Information:
Philosophical Magazine (2003, Print), Vol. 100, Issue 10; ISSN 1478-6435
Publisher:
Taylor & FrancisCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 1 work
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (43)

Observation of a Warped Helical Spin Texture in Bi 2 Se 3 from Circular Dichroism Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy journal November 2011
Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry's phase in graphene journal November 2005
Electronic Structure of the Topological Insulator Bi 2 Se 3 Using Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy: Evidence for a Nearly Full Surface Spin Polarization journal June 2011
Soliton excitations in polyacetylene journal August 1980
Landau Quantization of Topological Surface States in Bi 2 Se 3 journal August 2010
Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators journal February 2009
Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential journal August 1982
Shift of an Electron Interference Pattern by Enclosed Magnetic Flux journal July 1960
Topological insulators with inversion symmetry journal July 2007
Unconventional Integer Quantum Hall Effect in Graphene journal September 2005
Quantized Faraday and Kerr rotation and axion electrodynamics of a 3D topological insulator journal December 2016
Z2 Topological Order and the Quantum Spin Hall Effect journal September 2005
Direct mapping of the spin-filtered surface bands of a three-dimensional quantum spin Hall insulator journal January 2010
Experimenteller Nachweis der Phasenschiebung von Elektronenwellen durch das magnetische Vektorpotential journal February 1961
Solitons with fermion number ½ journal June 1976
Observability of the Sign Change of Spinors under 2 π Rotations journal June 1967
An example of phase holonomy in WKB theory journal December 1984
Quantum Oscillations and Hall Anomaly of Surface States in the Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 journal July 2010
Significance of Electromagnetic Potentials in the Quantum Theory journal August 1959
A Simple Intrinsic Proof of the Gauss-Bonnet Formula for Closed Riemannian Manifolds journal October 1944
On the Curvatura Integra in a Riemannian Manifold journal October 1945
Quantal Phase Factors Accompanying Adiabatic Changes journal March 1984
Holonomy, the Quantum Adiabatic Theorem, and Berry's Phase journal December 1983
Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions journal March 2007
Optical conductivity of bismuth-based topological insulators journal July 2012
Interpretation of the de Haas-van Alphen effect journal September 1952
Single Band Motion of Conduction Electrons in a Uniform Magnetic Field journal October 1955
Model for a Quantum Hall Effect without Landau Levels: Condensed-Matter Realization of the "Parity Anomaly" journal October 1988
The Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly and Weyl fermions in a crystal journal November 1983
Giant Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect and Universal Faraday Effect in Thin-Film Topological Insulators journal July 2010
Topological phases and the quantum spin Hall effect in three dimensions journal May 2009
Quantum oscillations in a topological insulator Bi1xSbx journal August 2009
Weak Anti-localization and Quantum Oscillations of Surface States in Topological Insulator Bi2Se2Te journal October 2012
Quantized Hall conductivity in two dimensions journal May 1981
Topological Quantization in Units of the Fine Structure Constant journal October 2010
Topological nature of nonlinear optical effects in solids journal May 2016
Topological invariants of time-reversal-invariant band structures journal March 2007
Quantization of particle transport journal May 1983
The Index of Elliptic Operators: I journal May 1968
Fermion number fractionization in quantum field theory journal April 1986
Energy levels and wave functions of Bloch electrons in rational and irrational magnetic fields journal September 1976
Two-dimensional gas of massless Dirac fermions in graphene journal November 2005
Topological insulators for high-performance terahertz to infrared applications journal December 2010