Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Spin-resolved topology and partial axion angles in three-dimensional insulators

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
Abstract

Symmetry-protected topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) have primarily been characterized by their gapless boundary states. However, in time-reversal- ( $$$${{{{{{{\mathcal{T}}}}}}}}$$$$ T -) invariant (helical) 3D TCIs—termed higher-order TCIs (HOTIs)—the boundary signatures can manifest as a sample-dependent network of 1D hinge states. We here introduce nested spin-resolved Wilson loops and layer constructions as tools to characterize the intrinsic bulk topological properties of spinful 3D insulators. We discover that helical HOTIs realize one of three spin-resolved phases with distinct responses that are quantitatively robust to large deformations of the bulk spin-orbital texture: 3D quantum spin Hall insulators (QSHIs), “spin-Weyl” semimetals, and $$$${{{{{{{\mathcal{T}}}}}}}}$$$$ T -doubled axion insulator (T-DAXI) states with nontrivial partial axion angles indicative of a 3D spin-magnetoelectric bulk response and half-quantized 2D TI surface states originating from a partial parity anomaly. Using ab-initio calculations, we demonstrate that β -MoTe 2 realizes a spin-Weyl state and that α -BiBr hosts both 3D QSHI and T-DAXI regimes.

Research Organization:
Northeastern University, Boston, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Science Foundation (NSF); Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0021238; SC0022168
OSTI ID:
2281407
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2403360
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 15; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United Kingdom
Language:
English

References (97)

Topological Engineering of Pt‐Group‐Metal‐Based Chiral Crystals toward High‐Efficiency Hydrogen Evolution Catalysts journal April 2020
Obstructed Surface States as the Descriptor for Predicting Catalytic Active Sites in Inorganic Crystalline Materials journal May 2022
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Anyons in an exactly solved model and beyond journal January 2006
WannierTools: An open-source software package for novel topological materials journal March 2018
Half quantum spin Hall effect on the surface of weak topological insulators journal February 2012
Ising Superconductivity and Its Hidden Variants journal June 2021
The inorganic crystal structure data base journal May 1983
Revelation of Topological Surface States in Bi 2 Se 3 Thin Films by In Situ Al Passivation journal December 2011
Spin-transfer torque generated by a topological insulator journal July 2014
Hourglass fermions journal April 2016
Topological quantum chemistry journal July 2017
Topological crystalline insulators in the SnTe material class journal January 2012
Spin and pseudospins in layered transition metal dichalcogenides journal April 2014
Fermi-level-dependent charge-to-spin current conversion by Dirac surface states of topological insulators journal July 2016
Symmetry-based indicators of band topology in the 230 space groups journal June 2017
Quantitative mappings between symmetry and topology in solids journal August 2018
Polar and phase domain walls with conducting interfacial states in a Weyl semimetal MoTe2 journal September 2019
Strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals with higher-order Fermi arcs journal January 2020
Magnetic topological quantum chemistry journal October 2021
Topological zero-dimensional defect and flux states in three-dimensional insulators journal October 2022
Topological electronic structure and spin texture of quasi-one-dimensional higher-order topological insulator Bi4Br4 journal December 2023
Magnetic wallpaper Dirac fermions and topological magnetic Dirac insulators journal April 2023
Evidence for a higher-order topological insulator in a three-dimensional material built from van der Waals stacking of bismuth-halide chains journal January 2021
Evidence of higher-order topology in multilayer WTe2 from Josephson coupling through anisotropic hinge states journal July 2020
Evidence of a room-temperature quantum spin Hall edge state in a higher-order topological insulator journal July 2022
Higher-order topology in bismuth journal July 2018
Efficient topological materials discovery using symmetry indicators journal February 2019
Experimental signature of the parity anomaly in a semi-magnetic topological insulator journal January 2022
Topological materials discovery from crystal symmetry journal November 2021
Magnetic and magnetic inverse spin Hall effects in a non-collinear antiferromagnet journal January 2019
Comprehensive search for topological materials using symmetry indicators journal February 2019
Catalogue of topological electronic materials journal February 2019
A complete catalogue of high-quality topological materials journal February 2019
High-throughput calculations of magnetic topological materials journal October 2020
Layer Hall effect in a 2D topological axion antiferromagnet journal July 2021
Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and its application to topological materials journal August 2019
Percolation, quantum tunnelling and the integer Hall effect journal May 1988
Purely rotational symmetry-protected topological crystalline insulator $\alpha$ -Bi 4 Br 4 journal May 2019
Axion coupling in the hybrid Wannier representation journal April 2020
Coincidence angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy: Proposal for detection of two-particle correlations journal May 2020
Crystallographic splitting theorem for band representations and fragile topological photonic crystals journal September 2020
Spin Hall conductivity in insulators with nonconserved spin journal September 2020
Distinguishing finite-momentum superconducting pairing states with two-electron photoemission spectroscopy journal February 2022
Doubled quantum spin Hall effect with high-spin Chern number in α -antimonene and α -bismuthene journal May 2022
Twisted nodal wires and three-dimensional quantum spin Hall effect in distorted square-net compounds journal June 2022
Magnetic band representations, Fu-Kane-like symmetry indicators, and magnetic topological materials journal July 2022
Semiclassical treatment of spinor topological effects in driven inhomogeneous insulators under external electromagnetic fields journal October 2022
Improved tetrahedron method for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1994
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Time reversal polarization and a Z 2 adiabatic spin pump journal November 2006
Topological insulators with inversion symmetry journal July 2007
Towards a microscopic theory of toroidal moments in bulk periodic crystals journal December 2007
Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators journal November 2008
Robustness of the spin-Chern number journal September 2009
Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates journal May 2011
Mapping topological order in coordinate space journal December 2011
Monopole-based formalism for the diagonal magnetoelectric response journal September 2013
Symmetry-protected topological phases with charge and spin symmetries: Response theory and dynamical gauge theory in two and three dimensions journal December 2013
Competing adiabatic Thouless pumps in enlarged parameter spaces journal December 2016
Surface theorem for the Chern-Simons axion coupling journal February 2017
Electric multipole moments, topological multipole moment pumping, and chiral hinge states in crystalline insulators journal December 2017
Surfaces of axion insulators journal December 2018
Magnetoelectric Polarizability and Axion Electrodynamics in Crystalline Insulators journal April 2009
Fractional Topological Insulators journal November 2009
Topological Crystalline Insulators journal March 2011
Model Characterization of Gapless Edge Modes of Topological Insulators Using Intermediate Brillouin-Zone Functions journal July 2011
Integer Quantum Hall Effect for Bosons journal January 2013
Spin-Electricity Conversion Induced by Spin Injection into Topological Insulators journal November 2014
Electromagnetic Response of Three-Dimensional Topological Crystalline Insulators journal April 2017
Fragile Topology and Wannier Obstructions journal September 2018
Spin-Resolved Electronic Response to the Phase Transition in MoTe 2 journal October 2018
Higher-Order Topology, Monopole Nodal Lines, and the Origin of Large Fermi Arcs in Transition Metal Dichalcogenides X Te 2 ( X = Mo , W ) journal October 2019
Delocalization Transition of a Disordered Axion Insulator journal June 2021
Measurement of Spin Chern Numbers in Quantum Simulated Topological Insulators journal September 2021
Two applications of axion electrodynamics journal May 1987
Model for a Quantum Hall Effect without Landau Levels: Condensed-Matter Realization of the "Parity Anomaly" journal October 1988
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Z2 Topological Order and the Quantum Spin Hall Effect journal September 2005
Quantum Spin Hall Effect in Graphene journal November 2005
Proper Definition of Spin Current in Spin-Orbit Coupled Systems journal February 2006
Quantum Spin Hall Effect journal March 2006
Quantum Spin-Hall Effect and Topologically Invariant Chern Numbers journal July 2006
Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions journal March 2007
Spin Hall effects journal October 2015
Colloquium : Zoo of quantum-topological phases of matter journal December 2017
Higher-order topological insulators journal June 2018
New classes of topological crystalline insulators having surface rotation anomaly journal December 2019
Resolving the topological classification of bismuth with topological defects journal November 2019
Dissipationless Quantum Spin Current at Room Temperature journal September 2003
Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells journal December 2006
Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells journal November 2007
Observation of Unconventional Quantum Spin Textures in Topological Insulators journal February 2009
Quantized Faraday and Kerr rotation and axion electrodynamics of a 3D topological insulator journal December 2016
Wallpaper fermions and the nonsymmorphic Dirac insulator journal July 2018
Evidence for an edge supercurrent in the Weyl superconductor MoTe 2 journal April 2020
All topological bands of all nonmagnetic stoichiometric materials journal May 2022

Similar Records

Strong and fragile topological Dirac semimetals with higher-order Fermi arcs
Journal Article · Thu Jan 30 19:00:00 EST 2020 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1619476

Comments on one-form global symmetries and their gauging in 3d and 4d
Journal Article · Thu Mar 28 20:00:00 EDT 2019 · SciPost Physics Proceedings · OSTI ID:1504279