Quantized electric multipole insulators
07 Jul 2017-Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science)-Vol. 357, Iss: 6346, pp 61-66
TL;DR: This work introduces a paradigm in which “nested” Wilson loops give rise to topological invariants that have been overlooked and opens a venue for the expansion of the classification of topological phases of matter.
Abstract: The Berry phase provides a modern formulation of electric polarization in crystals. We extend this concept to higher electric multipole moments and determine the necessary conditions and minimal models for which the quadrupole and octupole moments are topologically quantized electromagnetic observables. Such systems exhibit gapped boundaries that are themselves lower-dimensional topological phases. Furthermore, they host topologically protected corner states carrying fractional charge, exhibiting fractionalization at the boundary of the boundary. To characterize these insulating phases of matter, we introduce a paradigm in which “nested” Wilson loops give rise to topological invariants that have been overlooked. We propose three realistic experimental implementations of this topological behavior that can be immediately tested. Our work opens a venue for the expansion of the classification of topological phases of matter.
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TL;DR: A complete electronic band theory is proposed, which builds on the conventional band theory of electrons, highlighting the link between the topology and local chemical bonding and can be used to predict many more topological insulators.
Abstract: Since the discovery of topological insulators and semimetals, there has been much research into predicting and experimentally discovering distinct classes of these materials, in which the topology of electronic states leads to robust surface states and electromagnetic responses. This apparent success, however, masks a fundamental shortcoming: topological insulators represent only a few hundred of the 200,000 stoichiometric compounds in material databases. However, it is unclear whether this low number is indicative of the esoteric nature of topological insulators or of a fundamental problem with the current approaches to finding them. Here we propose a complete electronic band theory, which builds on the conventional band theory of electrons, highlighting the link between the topology and local chemical bonding. This theory of topological quantum chemistry provides a description of the universal (across materials), global properties of all possible band structures and (weakly correlated) materials, consisting of a graph-theoretic description of momentum (reciprocal) space and a complementary group-theoretic description in real space. For all 230 crystal symmetry groups, we classify the possible band structures that arise from local atomic orbitals, and show which are topologically non-trivial. Our electronic band theory sheds new light on known topological insulators, and can be used to predict many more.
1,150 citations
TL;DR: This work provides a comprehensive framework for generalized bulk-boundary correspondence and a quantized biorthogonal polarization that is formulated directly in systems with open boundaries, including exactly solvable non-Hermitian extensions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and Chern insulators.
Abstract: Non-Hermitian systems exhibit striking exceptions from the paradigmatic bulk-boundary correspondence, including the failure of bulk Bloch band invariants in predicting boundary states and the (dis)appearance of boundary states at parameter values far from those corresponding to gap closings in periodic systems without boundaries. Here, we provide a comprehensive framework to unravel this disparity based on the notion of biorthogonal quantum mechanics: While the properties of the left and right eigenstates corresponding to boundary modes are individually decoupled from the bulk physics in non-Hermitian systems, their combined biorthogonal density penetrates the bulk precisely when phase transitions occur. This leads to generalized bulk-boundary correspondence and a quantized biorthogonal polarization that is formulated directly in systems with open boundaries. We illustrate our general insights by deriving the phase diagram for several microscopic open boundary models, including exactly solvable non-Hermitian extensions of the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model and Chern insulators.
916 citations
TL;DR: The notion of three-dimensional topological insulators is extended to systems that host no gapless surface states but exhibit topologically protected gapless hinge states and it is shown that SnTe as well as surface-modified Bi2TeI, BiSe, and BiTe are helical higher-order topology insulators.
Abstract: Three-dimensional topological (crystalline) insulators are materials with an insulating bulk, but conducting surface states which are topologically protected by time-reversal (or spatial) symmetries. Here, we extend the notion of three-dimensional topological insulators to systems that host no gapless surface states, but exhibit topologically protected gapless hinge states. Their topological character is protected by spatio-temporal symmetries, of which we present two cases: (1) Chiral higher-order topological insulators protected by the combination of time-reversal and a four-fold rotation symmetry. Their hinge states are chiral modes and the bulk topology is $\mathbb{Z}_2$-classified. (2) Helical higher-order topological insulators protected by time-reversal and mirror symmetries. Their hinge states come in Kramers pairs and the bulk topology is $\mathbb{Z}$-classified. We provide the topological invariants for both cases. Furthermore we show that SnTe as well as surface-modified Bi$_2$TeI, BiSe, and BiTe are helical higher-order topological insulators and propose a realistic experimental setup to detect the hinge states.
864 citations
Cites background from "Quantized electric multipole insula..."
...There, we also provide two further topological characterizations, one based on so-called nested Wilson loop (4) and entanglement spectra (21–23) and one applicable to systems that are in addition invariant under the product Î T̂ of inversion symmetry Î and T̂ (3)....
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...(4) has introduced second-order 2D TIs and third-order 3D TIs....
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...(4) generalize this bulk-boundary correspondence: In two and three dimensions, these insulators exhibit no edge or surface states, respectively, but feature gapless, topological corner excitations corresponding to quantized higher electric multipole moments....
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TL;DR: Fourfold rotation-invariant gapped topological systems with time-reversal symmetry in two and three dimensions with strongly interacting systems through the explicit construction of microscopic models having robust (d-2)-dimensional edge states are studied.
Abstract: Theorists have discovered topological insulators that are insulating in their interior and on their surfaces but have conducting channels at corners or along edges.
826 citations
TL;DR: Measurements of a phononic quadrupole topological insulator are reported and topological corner states are found that are an important stepping stone to the experimental realization of topologically protected wave guides in higher dimensions, and thereby open up a new path for the design of metamaterials.
Abstract: The modern theory of charge polarization in solids is based on a generalization of Berry’s phase. The possibility of the quantization of this phase arising from parallel transport in momentum space is essential to our understanding of systems with topological band structures. Although based on the concept of charge polarization, this same theory can also be used to characterize the Bloch bands of neutral bosonic systems such as photonic or phononic crystals. The theory of this quantized polarization has recently been extended from the dipole moment to higher multipole moments. In particular, a two-dimensional quantized quadrupole insulator is predicted to have gapped yet topological one-dimensional edge modes, which stabilize zero-dimensional in-gap corner states. However, such a state of matter has not previously been observed experimentally. Here we report measurements of a phononic quadrupole topological insulator. We experimentally characterize the bulk, edge and corner physics of a mechanical metamaterial (a material with tailored mechanical properties) and find the predicted gapped edge and in-gap corner states. We corroborate our findings by comparing the mechanical properties of a topologically non-trivial system to samples in other phases that are predicted by the quadrupole theory. These topological corner states are an important stepping stone to the experimental realization of topologically protected wave guides in higher dimensions, and thereby open up a new path for the design of metamaterials.
818 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that the fundamental time-reversal invariant (TRI) insulator exists in $4+1$ dimensions, where the effective field theory is described by the $(4 + 1)$-dimensional Chern-Simons theory and the topological properties of the electronic structure are classified by the second Chern number.
Abstract: We show that the fundamental time-reversal invariant (TRI) insulator exists in $4+1$ dimensions, where the effective-field theory is described by the $(4+1)$-dimensional Chern-Simons theory and the topological properties of the electronic structure are classified by the second Chern number. These topological properties are the natural generalizations of the time reversal-breaking quantum Hall insulator in $2+1$ dimensions. The TRI quantum spin Hall insulator in $2+1$ dimensions and the topological insulator in $3+1$ dimensions can be obtained as descendants from the fundamental TRI insulator in $4+1$ dimensions through a dimensional reduction procedure. The effective topological field theory and the ${Z}_{2}$ topological classification for the TRI insulators in $2+1$ and $3+1$ dimensions are naturally obtained from this procedure. All physically measurable topological response functions of the TRI insulators are completely described by the effective topological field theory. Our effective topological field theory predicts a number of measurable phenomena, the most striking of which is the topological magnetoelectric effect, where an electric field generates a topological contribution to the magnetization in the same direction, with a universal constant of proportionality quantized in odd multiples of the fine-structure constant $\ensuremath{\alpha}={e}^{2}∕\ensuremath{\hbar}c$. Finally, we present a general classification of all topological insulators in various dimensions and describe them in terms of a unified topological Chern-Simons field theory in phase space.
2,658 citations
TL;DR: This work proposes and experimentally demonstrate a photonic topological insulator free of external fields and with scatter-free edge transport—a photonic lattice exhibiting topologically protected transport of visible light on the lattice edges.
Abstract: Topological insulators are a new phase of matter, with the striking property that conduction of electrons occurs only on their surfaces. In two dimensions, electrons on the surface of a topological insulator are not scattered despite defects and disorder, providing robustness akin to that of superconductors. Topological insulators are predicted to have wide-ranging applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing and spintronics. Substantial effort has been directed towards realizing topological insulators for electromagnetic waves. One-dimensional systems with topological edge states have been demonstrated, but these states are zero-dimensional and therefore exhibit no transport properties. Topological protection of microwaves has been observed using a mechanism similar to the quantum Hall effect, by placing a gyromagnetic photonic crystal in an external magnetic field. But because magnetic effects are very weak at optical frequencies, realizing photonic topological insulators with scatter-free edge states requires a fundamentally different mechanism-one that is free of magnetic fields. A number of proposals for photonic topological transport have been put forward recently. One suggested temporal modulation of a photonic crystal, thus breaking time-reversal symmetry and inducing one-way edge states. This is in the spirit of the proposed Floquet topological insulators, in which temporal variations in solid-state systems induce topological edge states. Here we propose and experimentally demonstrate a photonic topological insulator free of external fields and with scatter-free edge transport-a photonic lattice exhibiting topologically protected transport of visible light on the lattice edges. Our system is composed of an array of evanescently coupled helical waveguides arranged in a graphene-like honeycomb lattice. Paraxial diffraction of light is described by a Schrodinger equation where the propagation coordinate (z) acts as 'time'. Thus the helicity of the waveguides breaks z-reversal symmetry as proposed for Floquet topological insulators. This structure results in one-way edge states that are topologically protected from scattering.
2,483 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a nonzero Berry phase is shown to exist in a one-dimensional parameter space and a connection between the latter and the Wyckoff positions in the crystal in the framework of band representations of space groups is established.
Abstract: Berry's phase is defined for the dynamics of electrons in periodic solids and an explicit formula is derived for it. Because of the special torus topology of the Brillouin zone a nonzero Berry phase is shown to exist in a one-dimensional parameter space. Symmetry of the Bloch functions in the Brillouin zone leads to the quantization of Berry's phase. A connection is established between the latter and the Wyckoff positions in the crystal in the framework of band representations of space groups. Berry's phase can therefore be used for labeling energy bands in solids.
1,386 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that for two atomic spin states with opposite magnetic moments, the experimental implementation of an optical lattice that allows for the generation of large homogeneous and tunable artificial magnetic fields with ultracold atoms naturally realizes the time-reversal-symmetric Hamiltonian underlying the quantum spin Hall effect.
Abstract: We demonstrate the experimental implementation of an optical lattice that allows for the generation of large homogeneous and tunable artificial magnetic fields with ultracold atoms. Using laser-assisted tunneling in a tilted optical potential, we engineer spatially dependent complex tunneling amplitudes. Thereby, atoms hopping in the lattice accumulate a phase shift equivalent to the Aharonov-Bohm phase of charged particles in a magnetic field. We determine the local distribution of fluxes through the observation of cyclotron orbits of the atoms on lattice plaquettes, showing that the system is described by the Hofstadter model. Furthermore, we show that for two atomic spin states with opposite magnetic moments, our system naturally realizes the time-reversal-symmetric Hamiltonian underlying the quantum spin Hall effect; i.e., two different spin components experience opposite directions of the magnetic field.
1,130 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that a nonlinear array of coupled waveguides can exhibit discrete self-focusing that in the continuum approximation obeys the so-called nonlinear Schrödinger equation.
Abstract: We show that a nonlinear array of coupled waveguides can exhibit discrete self-focusing that in the continuum approximation obeys the so-called nonlinear Schrodinger equation. This process has much in common with the biophysical model of Davydov.
998 citations