Higher-order topological insulator in a dodecagonal quasicrystal

Abstract

Higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) are a newly discovered class of topological insulators which exhibit unconventional bulk-boundary correspondence. Very recently, the concept of HOTIs has been extended to aperiodic quasicrystalline systems, where the topological band theory fails to describe topological phases. More importantly, a novel HOTI phase protected by an eightfold rotational symmetry, not found in crystalline materials, was identified in the Ammann-Beenker tiling quasicrystals. Here we report the discovery of a quasicrystalline HOTI in a dodecagonal quasicrystal. The quasicrystalline HOTI supports twelve in-gap zero-energy modes symmetrically distributed at the corners of the quasicrystal dodecagon. These zero-energy corner modes are protected by a combination of a twelvefold rotational symmetry and mirror symmetry, as well as particle-hole symmetry, which has no crystalline counterpart.