No Arabic abstract
We have performed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on Pb(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4, which is a member of lead-based ternary tellurides and has been theoretically proposed as a candidate for a new class of three-dimensional topological insulators (TIs). In PbBi2Te4, we found a topological surface state with a hexagonally deformed Dirac-cone band dispersion, indicating that this material is a strong TI with a single topological surface state at the Brillouin-zone center. Partial replacement of Bi with Sb causes a marked change in the Dirac carrier concentration, leading to the sign change of Dirac carriers from n-type to p-type. The Pb(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4 system with tunable Dirac carriers thus provides a new platform for investigating exotic topological phenomena.
Using the superconducting proximity effect for engineering a topological superconducting state in a topological insulator (TI) is a promising route to realize Majorana fermions. However, epitaxial growth of a superconductor on the TI surface to achieve a good proximity effect has been a challenge. We discovered that simply depositing Pd on thin films of the TI material (Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$Te$_3$ leads to an epitaxial self-formation of PdTe$_2$ superconductor having the superconducting transition temperature of ~1 K. This self-formed superconductor proximitizes the TI, which is confirmed by the appearance of a supercurrent in Josephson-junction devices made on (Bi$_{1-x}$Sb$_x$)$_2$Te$_3$. This self-epitaxy phenomenon can be conveniently used for fabricating TI-based superconducting nanodevices to address the superconducting proximity effect in TIs.
The discovery of Weyl semimetals (WSMs) has fueled tremendous interest in condensed matter physics. WSMs require breaking of either inversion symmetry (IS) or time-reversal symmetry (TRS); they can be categorized into type-I and type-II WSMs, characterized by un-tilted and strongly tilted Weyl cones respectively. Type-I WSMs with breaking of IS or TRS and type-II WSMs with IS breaking have been realized experimentally, but TRS-breaking type-II WSM still remains elusive. In this article, we report an ideal TRS-breaking type-II WSM with only one pair of Weyl nodes observed in the antiferromagnetic topological insulator Mn(Bi1-xSbx)2Te4 under magnetic fields. This state is manifested by a large intrinsic anomalous Hall effect, a non-trivial $mathrm{{pi}}$ Berry phase of the cyclotron orbit and a large positive magnetoresistance in the ferromagnetic phase at an optimal sample composition. Our results establish a promising platform for exploring the physics underlying the long-sought, ideal TRS breaking type-II WSM.
After the classification of topological states of matter has been clarified for non-interacting electron systems, the theoretical connection between gapless boundary modes and nontrivial bulk topological structures, and their evolutions as a function of dimensions are now well understood. However, such dimensional hierarchy has not been well established experimentally although some indirect evidences were reported, for example, such as the half-quantized Hall conductance via quantum Hall effect and extrapolation in the quantum-oscillation measurement. In this paper, we report the appearance of the possible chiral edge mode from the surface state of topological insulators under magnetic fields, confirming the dimensional hierarchy in three dimensional topological insulators. Applying laser pulses to the surface state of Bi1-xSbx, we find that the sign of voltage relaxation in one edge becomes opposite to that in the other edge only when magnetic fields are applied to the topological insulating phase. We show that this sign difference originates from the chirality of edge states, based on coupled time-dependent Poisson and Boltzmann equations.
We developed the theory which describes the Floquet engineering of surface electronic modes in bulk mercury telluride (HgTe) by a circularly polarized electromagnetic field. The analysis shows that the field results in appearance of the surface states which arise from the mixing of conduction and valence bands of HgTe. Their branches lie near the center of the Brillouin zone and have the Dirac dispersion characteristic for topological states. Besides them, the irradiation induces the gap between the conduction and valence bands of HgTe. Thus, the irradiation can turn mercury telluride into topological insulator from gapless semiconductor. It is demonstrated that the optically induced states differ substantially from the non-topological surface states existing in HgTe without irradiation. The structure of the found states is studied both analytically and numerically in the broad range of their parameters.
We use split-ring resonators to demonstrate topologically protected edge states in the Su-Schieffer-Heeger model experimentally, but in a slow-light wave with the group velocity down to $sim 0.1$ of light speed in free space. A meta-material formed by an array of complementary split-ring resonators with controllable hopping strength enables the direct observation in transmission and reflection of non-trivial topology eigenstates, including a negative phase velocity regime. By rotating the texture orientation of the diatomic resonators, we can explore all the band structures and unveil the onset of the trivial and non-trivial protected eigenmodes at GHz frequencies, even in the presence of non-negligible loss. Our system realizes a fully tunable and controllable artificial optical system to study the interplay between topology and slow-light towards applications in quantum technologies.