| Title | Structural Amorphization-Induced Topological Order |
| Authors | Wang, Citian Cheng, Ting Liu, Zhirong Liu, Feng Huang, Huaqing |
| Affiliation | Peking Univ, Sch Phys, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China Peking Univ, Coll Chem & Mol Engn, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China Univ Utah, Dept Mat Sci & Engn, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA Collaborat Innovat Ctr Quantum Matter, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China Peking Univ, Ctr High Energy Phys, Beijing 100871, Peoples R China |
| Keywords | RADIAL-DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION ELECTRONIC-PROPERTIES ALLOYS ENERGY CARBON DIFFRACTION TRANSITION METALS MODELS LIQUID |
| Issue Date | 2-Feb-2022 |
| Publisher | PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS |
| 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. 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. |
| URI | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11897/637793 |
| ISSN | 0031-9007 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.056401 |
| Indexed | EI SCI(E) |
| Appears in Collections: | 物理学院 å å¦ä¸ å å å·¥ç¨ å¦é ¢ |
