Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order
Abstract
Electronic properties of crystals are inherently pertained to crystalline symmetry, so that amorphization that lowers and breaks symmetry is detrimental. One important crystalline property is electron band topology which is known to be weakened and destroyed by structural disorder. Here, we report a counterintuitive theoretical discovery that atomic structural disorder by amorphization can in fact induce electronic order of topology in an otherwise topologically trivial crystal. The resulting nontrivial topology is characterized by a nonzero spin Bott index, associated with robust topological edge states and quantized conductance. Further, the underlying topological phase transition (TPT) from a trivial crystal to a topological amorphous is analyzed by mapping out a phase diagram in the degree of structural disorder using an effective medium theory. The atomic disorder is revealed to induce topological order by renormalizing the spectral gap toward nontriviality near the phase boundary. As a concrete example, we further show such TPT in amorphous stanane by first-principles calculations. Our findings point to possible observation of an electronic ordering transition accompanied by a structural disorder transition.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[3]
- Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); National Key Research and Development Program of China
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1905830
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-04ER46148; 12074006; 2021YFA1401600
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Physical Review Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 128; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
- Publisher:
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
Citation Formats
Wang, Citian, Cheng, Ting, Liu, Zhirong, Liu, Feng, and Huang, Huaqing. Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.128.056401.
Wang, Citian, Cheng, Ting, Liu, Zhirong, Liu, Feng, & Huang, Huaqing. Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.128.056401
Wang, Citian, Cheng, Ting, Liu, Zhirong, Liu, Feng, and Huang, Huaqing. Wed .
"Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.128.056401. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1905830.
@article{osti_1905830,
title = {Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order},
author = {Wang, Citian and Cheng, Ting and Liu, Zhirong and Liu, Feng and Huang, Huaqing},
abstractNote = {Electronic properties of crystals are inherently pertained to crystalline symmetry, so that amorphization that lowers and breaks symmetry is detrimental. One important crystalline property is electron band topology which is known to be weakened and destroyed by structural disorder. Here, we report a counterintuitive theoretical discovery that atomic structural disorder by amorphization can in fact induce electronic order of topology in an otherwise topologically trivial crystal. The resulting nontrivial topology is characterized by a nonzero spin Bott index, associated with robust topological edge states and quantized conductance. Further, the underlying topological phase transition (TPT) from a trivial crystal to a topological amorphous is analyzed by mapping out a phase diagram in the degree of structural disorder using an effective medium theory. The atomic disorder is revealed to induce topological order by renormalizing the spectral gap toward nontriviality near the phase boundary. As a concrete example, we further show such TPT in amorphous stanane by first-principles calculations. Our findings point to possible observation of an electronic ordering transition accompanied by a structural disorder transition.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.128.056401},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 5,
volume = 128,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Wed Feb 02 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}
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