Normal Insulator Research Articles

Magnetic response of topological insulator layer with metamaterial substrate induced by an electric point source

Abstract Topological insulators (TIs) are materials with unique surface conductive properties that distinguish them from normal insulators and have attracted significant interest due to their potential applications in electronics and spintronics. However, their weak magnetic field response in traditional setups has limited their practical applications. Here, we show that integrating TIs with active metamaterial substrates can significantly enhance the induced magnetic field by more than 104 times. Our results demonstrate that selecting specific permittivity and permeability values for the active metamaterial substrate optimizes the magnetic field at the interface between the TI layer and the metamaterial, extending it into free space. This represents a substantial improvement over previous methods, where the magnetic field decayed rapidly. The findings reveal that the TI-metamaterial approach enhances the magnetic field response, unveiling new aspects of TI electromagnetic behavior and suggesting novel pathways for developing materials with tailored electromagnetic properties. The integration of metamaterials with TIs offers promising opportunities for advancements in materials science and various technological applications. Overall, our study provides a practical and effective approach to exploring the unique magnetic field responses of TIs, potentially benefiting other complex material systems.

Impact of barrier width on topological insulator phase in InN/InGaN quantum wells with moderate strain

We present a theoretical study demonstrating that in InN/InGaN quantum wells, the topological insulator phase depends largely not only on the quantum well width, but also on the width of the barriers. We show that for structures with a large width of the barriers equal to 200 nm, the topological insulator exists only when the quantum well width is less than 4.5 nm. For quantum wells with widths of 4.5 nm, we obtain a unique topological phase transition from the normal insulator phase to the nonlocal topological semimetal via the Weyl semimetal phase. Decreasing the width of the barriers from 200 to 20 nm results in a large increase in the bulk energy gap in the topological insulator phase, which can greatly facilitate experimental verification of the topological insulator in InN/InGaN quantum wells. We reveal that this effect originates from increasing the built-in electric field in the barriers, which remarkably decreases the penetration of the conduction band wavefunction in the barrier. We also demonstrate that the bulk energy gap in the topological insulator phase is larger in the free-standing structures than in the structures grown on the substrates with the same In content as the barriers.

Proximity-induced anomalous topological superconductivity in an antiferromagnetic honeycomb-lattice

Abstract Topological superconductivity, generated in an engineered system with the proximity effect from an s-wave superconductor, usually requires the original sample to be a topological insulator. In this study, we propose a novel form of topological superconductivity in a honeycomb lattice arising from both antiferromagnetism and s-wave superconductivity. Eventhough the honeycomb lattice with antiferromagnetism is a normal insulator, the inherent topology of such a system is nontrivial. The topology of the system is determined by the relative values of the s-wave pairing potential and antiferromagnetic order. Notably, there are no chiral edge states at the open boundary if the engineered system is uniform everywhere, whether topologically trivial or not. However, when two parts with different topologies are brought together, two chiral edge states emerge at the topological phase boundary in the middle of the material. This challenges the bulk-edge correspondence observed in conventional topological materials. These chiral edge states are protected by valley symmetry and, owing to their Majorana fermion nature, can contribute to a half-integer quantized conductance.

Exciton Condensation in Landau Levels of Quantum Spin Hall Insulators.

We theoretically study the quantum spin Hall insulator (QSHI) in a perpendicular magnetic field. In the noninteracting case, the QSHI with space inversion and/or uniaxial spin rotation symmetry undergoes a topological transition into a normal insulator phase at a critical magnetic field B_{c}. The exciton condensation in the lowest Landau levels is triggered by Coulomb interactions in the vicinity of B_{c} at low temperature and spontaneously breaks the inversion and the spin rotation symmetries. We propose that the electron spin resonance spectroscopy with the ac magnetic field also aligned in the perpendicular direction can directly probe the exciton condensation order. Our results should apply to QSHIs such as the InAs/GaSb quantum wells and monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides.

Influence of non-magnetic defects and quantum size effects in two-dimensional SiSnF<sub>2</sub>

It is generally believed that topological insulators are highly immune to non-magnetic defects, but there is still a lack of verification on a mesoscopic scale of device applications. We take SiSnF<sub>2</sub> monolayer ribbons as an illustration to study the effects of defects and sizes on the electron transport in topological insulators. First-principles calculations show that SiSnF<sub>2</sub> is transformed into a topological insulator under a tensile strain greater than 2%. The data of an effective tight-binding model are obtained by using a genetic algorithm to calculate the transport properties of the topological insulator SiSnF<sub>2</sub> ribbons, and it is found that edge states can also be disrupted by random vacancy defects. For a ribbon with a length of 18.8 nm and a width of 8.2 nm, when it has no defects, the current is concentrated at its edge, and its conductance is an ideal value of the topological edge state, 2<i>e</i><sup>2</sup>/<i>h</i>. When the defect concentration is 1%, the edge current is appreciably disturbed, but the backscattering is still effectively suppressed, and the current bypasses the defect and still goes forward. When the concentration is 5%, the edge electrons are scattered deep into the ribbon and scattered with the opposite edge, destroying the topological edge state and reducing the conductance to 0.6<i>e</i><sup>2</sup>/<i>h</i>. Therefore, the transformation from topological to normal insulator caused by defects happens gradually rather than suddenly. Found in this study is an obvious transport quantum size effect, i.e. increasing the ribbon width can reduce electron scattering between edges and enhance the stability of topological edge states; while increasing the length will increase electron localization and electron scattering between edges, reducing the stability of topological edge states.

Light-enhanced nonlinear Hall effect

The Hall response can be dramatically different from its quantized value in materials with broken inversion symmetry. This stems from the leading Hall contribution beyond the linear order, known as the Berry curvature dipole (BCD). While the BCD is in principle always present, it is typically very small outside of a narrow window close to a topological transition and is thus experimentally elusive without careful tuning of external fields, temperature, or impurities. We transcend this challenge by devising optical driving and quench protocols that enable practical and direct access to large BCD. Varying the amplitude of an incident circularly polarized laser drives a topological transition between normal and Chern insulator phases, and importantly allows the precise unlocking of nonlinear Hall currents comparable to or larger than the linear Hall contributions. This strong BCD engineering is even more versatile with our two-parameter quench protocol, as demonstrated in our experimental proposal.

Visualization of spin-polarized surface resonances in Pb-based ternary topological insulators

The formation of the topological surface state originates from bulk band inversion at the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band. The transition between normal and topological insulators is known as a topological phase transition. Here we show spin-polarized electronic states of Pb-based ternary topological insulators Pb(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4 (x = 0.55, 0.70, 0.79) investigated by spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. We visualize a pair of spin-polarized surface resonances dispersing along the upper edge of projected bulk bands in occupied states. Interestingly, a branch of the spin-polarized surface resonances continuously connects to the topological surface state. The coexistence of the topological surface state and the spin-polarized surface resonances can be explained by considering the topological phase transition.

Strain-modulated antiferromagnetic Chern insulator in NiOsCl6 monolayer

Abstract Recently, Chern insulators in an antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase have been suggested theoretically and predicted in a few materials. However, the experimental observation of two-dimensional AFM quantum anomalous Hall effect is still a challenge to date. In this work, we propose that an AFM Chern insulator can be realized in a two-dimensional monolayer of NiOsCl$_6$ modulated by a compressive strain. Strain modulation is accessible experimentally and used widely in predicting and tuning topological nontrivial phases. With first-principles calculations, we have investigated the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of NiOsCl$_6$. Its stability has been confirmed through molecular dynamical simulations, elasticity constant and phonon spectrum. It has a collinear AFM order, with opposite magnetic moments of 1.3 $\mu_B$ on each Ni/Os atom, respectively, and the Néel temperature is estimated to be 93 $K$. In the absence of strain, it functions as an AFM insulator with a direct gap with spin-orbital coupling included. Compressive strain will induce a transition from a normal insulator to a Chern insulator characterized by a Chern number $C = 1$, with a band gap of about 30 meV. This transition is accompanied by a structural distortion. Remarkably, the Chern insulator phase persists within the 3$\%$-10$\%$ compressive strain range, offering an alternative platform for the utilization of AFM materials in spintronic devices.

Search for an antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal in (MnTe) m (Sb2Te3) n and (MnTe) m (Bi2Te3) n superlattices

The interaction between topology and magnetism can lead to novel topological materials including Chern insulators, axion insulators, and Dirac and Weyl semimetals. In this work, a family of van der Waals layered materials using MnTe and Sb2Te3 or Bi2Te3 superlattices as building blocks are systematically examined in a search for antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetals, preferably with a simple node structure. The approach is based on controlling the strength of the exchange interaction as a function of layer composition to induce the phase transition between the topological and the normal insulators. Our calculations, utilizing a combination of first-principles density functional theory and tight-binding analyses based on maximally localized Wannier functions, clearly indicate a promising candidate for a type-I magnetic Weyl semimetal. This centrosymmetric material, Mn10Sb8Te22 (or (MnTe) m (Sb2Te3) n with m = 10 and n = 4), shows ferromagnetic intralayer and antiferromagnetic interlayer interactions in the antiferromagnetic ground state. The obtained electronic bandstructure also exhibits a single pair of Weyl points in the spin-split bands consistent with a Weyl semimetal. The presence of Weyl nodes is further verified with Berry curvature, Wannier charge center, and surface state (i.e. Fermi arc) calculations. Other combinations of the MnSbTe-family materials are found to be antiferromagnetic topological or normal insulators on either side of the Mn:Sb ratio, respectively, illustrating the topological phase transition as anticipated. A similar investigation in the homologous (MnTe) m (Bi2Te3) n system produces mostly nontrivial antiferromagnetic insulators due to the strong spin–orbit coupling. When realized, the antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetals in the simplest form (i.e. a single pair of Weyl nodes) are expected to provide a promising candidate for low-power spintronic applications.

Electrical Breakdown of Excitonic Insulators

We propose a new electrical breakdown mechanism for exciton insulators in the BCS limit, which differs fundamentally from the Zener breakdown mechanism observed in traditional band insulators. Our new mechanism results from the instability of the many-body ground state for exciton condensation, caused by the strong competition between the polarization and condensation energies in the presence of an electric field. We refer to this mechanism as “many-body breakdown.” To investigate this new mechanism, we propose a BCS-type trial wave function under finite electric fields and use it to study the many-body breakdown numerically. Our results reveal two different types of electric breakdown behavior. If the system size is larger than a critical value, the Zener tunneling process is first turned on when an electrical field is applied, but the excitonic gap remains until the field strength reaches the critical value of the many-body breakdown, after which the excitonic gap disappears and the system becomes a highly conductive metallic state. However, if the system size is much smaller than the critical value, the intermediate tunneling phase disappears since the many-body breakdown happens before the onset of Zener tunneling. The sudden disappearance of the local gap leads to an “off-on” feature in the current-voltage (I−V) curve, providing a straightforward way to distinguish excitonic insulators from normal insulators. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Phase- and temperature-driven chiral topological superfluids on a honeycomb lattice

The correlated spinful Haldane model exhibits rich topological phases consisting of chiral topological superfluids (TSFs) and topological spin density waves. However, most of previous studies mainly focus on the case with the fixed hopping phase or at zero temperature. In this paper, we study the attractive spinful Haldane model with arbitrary phase at finite temperature. The chiral TSFs with Chern number C = 2 and 4 emerge driven by the phase and temperature. In particular, the temperature can drive a C = 2 topological superfluid from a trivial normal insulator phase at an appropriate interaction. The bulk topology of all TSFs is uncovered by the Wilson loop method, and confirmed by the responses of edge dislocations.

Magneto-induced topological phase transition in inverted InAs/GaSb bilayers

We report a magneto-induced topological phase transition in inverted InAs/GaSb bilayers from a quantum spin Hall insulator to a normal insulator. We utilize a dual-gated Corbino device in which the degree of band inversion, or equivalently the electron and hole densities, can be continuously tuned. We observe a topological phase transition around the magnetic field where a band crossing occurs, accompanied by a bulk-gap closure characterized by a bulk conductance peak (BCP). In another set of experiments, we study the transition under a tilted magnetic field (tilt angle ). We observe the characteristic magnetoconductance around BCP as a function of , which dramatically depends on the density of the bilayers. In a relatively deep inversion (hence a higher density) regime, where the electron-hole hybridization dominates the excitonic interaction, the BCP grows with . On the contrary, in a shallowly inverted (a lower density) regime, where the excitonic interaction dominates the hybridization, the BCP is suppressed indicating a smooth crossover without a gap closure. This suggests the existence of a low-density, correlated insulator with spontaneous symmetry breaking near the critical point. Our highly controllable electron-hole system offers an ideal platform to study interacting topological states as proposed by recent theories. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Emerging topological states in EuMn2Bi2: A first principles prediction

Emerging topological states in EuMn2Bi2: A first principles prediction

Study on insulator defect detection based on improved YOLOv8

Given the problems of poor detection effect in aerial insulator images resulting in poor detection effect, a multi-defect detection algorithm for aerial insulators based on improved YOLOv8 is proposed. The algorithm first changed the FPN structure to BiFPN by introducing the upsampling and downsampling connections in the upstream and downstream of the feature pyramid, to enhance the interaction and information flow between characteristics at different scales. Secondly, the SPPF is improved by using the LSKA attention mechanism to enhance the ability to extract multi-scale features. Finally, for the detection of tiny fine particles, this paper reheavys the decoupling head and the lightweight decoupling head, extracts the key information above the space and channels, and implements a lower inference latency while maintaining accuracy. The algorithm detects the normal glass insulator, glass sheet dirt, glass sheet defect, polymer sheet dirt, polymer sheet defect, and polymer insulator in the aerial image, and simultaneously detects the flashover of the insulator. The experimental results show that the network used in the insulator defect data set detection accuracy (mAP) reached 87.8%, which increased by 2.6% compared to the benchmark model, and the calculation amount (GFLOPs) decreased by 24%. At the same time, after lightweight model parameters are reduced by 32%, based on the accuracy of the subsequent deployment of lightweight requirements, we can better detect insulators of different scales and different conditions.

The quantum spin Hall insulator with large bandgap in functionalized AlBi monolayer

The quantum spin Hall insulator with large bandgap in functionalized AlBi monolayer

Tuning the Bandgap and Topological Phase Transition in Bilayer Van der Waals Stanane by Electric Field

For very few special 2D materials, electric field can be used to realize the topological phase transition from normal insulator (NI) into topological insulator (TI). To design the low‐power electronic devices based on 2DTIs, tunable and practical 2DTIs may be necessary. Herein, a model of electric field‐tunable 2DTIs based on bilayer van der Waals semiconductors is proposed. The bilayer semiconductors can be tuned by electric field from NIs into TIs. As a good candidate of the predicted 2DTIs, the possible topological phase transition of bilayer stanane (SnH) under electric field using first‐principles calculations is studied. The calculations suggest that bilayer stanane can be converted from NI into TI by vertical electric field. The topological bandgap can be up to about 22.8 meV, which is giant for the electric field‐tunable 2DTIs. It can be further enlarged by vertical pressure. This discovery provides new possibilities for converting NIs into TIs by electric field and creating multifunctional topological field‐effect transistors by tunable 2DTIs.

Resistive Avalanches in La1-xSrxCoO3-δ (x = 0, 0.3) Thin Films and Their Reversible Evolution by Tuning Lattice Oxygen Vacancies (δ).

Strong correlations are often manifested by exotic electronic phases and phase transitions. LaCoO3-δ (LCO) is a system that exhibits such strong electronic correlations with lattice-spin-charge-orbital degrees of freedom. Here, we show that mesoscopic oxygen-deficient LCO films show resistive avalanches of about 2 orders of magnitude due to the metal-insulator transition (MIT) of the film at about 372 K for the 25 W RF power-deposited LCO film on the Si/SiO2 substrate. In bulk, this transition is otherwise gradual and occurs over a very large temperature range. In thin films of LCO, the oxygen deficiency (0 < δ < 0.5) is more easily reversibly tuned, resulting in avalanches. The avalanches disappear after vacuum annealing, and the films behave like normal insulators (δ ∼0.5) with Co2+ in charge ordering alternatively with Co3+. This oxidation state change induces spin state crossovers that result in a spin blockade in the insulating phase, while the conductivity arises from hole hopping among the allowed cobalt Co4+ ion spin states at high temperature. The chemical pressure (strain) of 30% Sr2+ doping at the La3+ site results in reduction in the avalanche magnitude as well as their retention in subsequent heating cycles. The charge nonstoichiometry arising due to Sr2+ doping is found to contribute toward hole doping (i.e., Co3+ oxidation to Co4+) and thereby the retention of the hole percolation pathway. This is also manifested in energies of crossover from the 3D variable range hopping (VRH) type transport observed in the temperature range of 300-425 K, while small polaron hopping (SPH) is observed in the temperature range of 600-725 K for LCO. On the other hand, Sr-doped LCO does not show any crossover and only the VRH type of transport. The strain due to Sr2+ doping refrains the lattice from complete conversion of δ going to 0.5, retaining the avalanches.

Topological semimetal phase in non-Hermitian Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model

We explore the non-Hermitian Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model with long-range hopping and off-diagonal disorders. In the non-Hermitian clean limit, we find that the phase diagram holds topological semimetal phase with exceptional points except the normal insulator phase and the topological insulator phase. Interestingly, it is found that the topological semimetal phase is induced by long-range nonreciprocal term when the long-range hopping is not equal to the intercell hopping. Especially, we show the existence of topological semimetal phase with exceptional points and determine the transition point analytically and numerically under the Hermitian clean limit when the long-range hopping is equal to the intercell hopping. Furthermore, we also investigate the effects of the disorders on topological semimetal phase, and show that the disorders can enhance the region of topological semimetal phase in contrast to the case of non-Hermitian clean limit, indicating that it is beneficial to topological semimetal phase whether there is one disorder or two disorders in the system, that is, the topological semimetal phase is stable against the disorders in this one-dimensional non-Hermitian system. Our work provides an alternative avenue for studying topological semimetal phase in non-Hermitian lattice systems.

Pressure-Induced Topological Phase Transition and Large Rashba Effect in Halide Double Perovskite.

In general, hydrostatic pressure can suppress ferroelectric polarization and further reduce Rashba spin-splitting, considering the spin-orbit coupling effect. Here, we present the design of ferroelectric double perovskite Cs2SnSiI6, which exhibits the anomalous enhancement of Rashba spin-splitting parameters by pressure-induced ferroelectric topological order. The Rashba effect is nonlinear with the decrease in polarization under pressure and reaches a maximum at the pressure-induced Weyl semimetal (WSM) state between the transition from a normal insulator (NI) to a topological insulator (TI). Furthermore, we discover that controlling ferroelectric polarization with an electric field can also induce the topological transition with a large Rashba spin-splitting but under a lower critical pressure. These discoveries show a tunable gaint Rashba effect and pressure-induced topological phase transition for Cs2SnSiI6, which can promote future research on the interaction between the Rashba effect and topological order, and its application to new electronic and spintronic devices.

Floquet engineering of the orbital Hall effect and valleytronics in two-dimensional topological magnets.

We show that circularly polarized light is a versatile way to manipulate both the orbital Hall effect and band topology in two-dimensional ferromagnets. Employing the hexagonal lattice, we proposed that interactions between light and matter allow for the modulation of the valley polarization effect, and then band inversions, accompanied by the band gap closing and reopening processes, can be achieved subsequently at two valleys. Remarkably, the distribution of orbital angular momentum can be controlled by the band inversions, leading to the Floquet engineering of the orbital Hall effect, as well as the topological phase transition from a second-order topological insulator to a Chern insulator with in-plane magnetization, and then to a normal insulator. Furthermore, first-principles calculations validate the feasibility with the 2H-ScI2 monolayer as a candidate material, paving a technological avenue to bridge the orbitronics and nontrivial topology using Floquet engineering.