Percolating states in the topological Anderson insulator

Abstract

We investigate the presence of percolating states in disordered two-dimensional topological insulators. In particular, we uncover a close connection between these states and the so-called topological Anderson insulator, which is a topologically nontrivial phase induced by the presence of disorder. The decay of this phase could previously be connected to a delocalization of bulk states with increasing disorder strength. We identify this delocalization to be the result of a percolation transition of states that circumnavigate the hills of the bulk disorder potential.