No Arabic abstract
Two-dimensional topological insulator features time-reversal-invariant spin-momentum-locked one-dimensional (1D) edge states with a linear energy dispersion. However, experimental access to 1D edge states is still of great challenge and only limited to few techniques to date. Here, by using infrared absorption spectroscopy, we observed robust topologically originated edge states in a-Bi4Br4 belts with definitive signature of strong infrared absorption at belt sides and distinct anisotropy with respect to light polarizations, which is further supported by first-principles calculations. Our work demonstrates for the first time that the infrared spectroscopy can offer a power-efficient approach in experimentally probing 1D edge states of topological materials.
Recent progress in the field of topological states of matter(1,2) has largely been initiated by the discovery of bismuth and antimony chalcogenide bulk topological insulators (TIs)(3-6), followed by closely related ternary compounds(7-16) and predictions of several weak TIs(17-19). However, both the conceptual richness of Z$_2$ classification of TIs as well as their structural and compositional diversity are far from being fully exploited. Here, a new Z$_2$ topological insulator is theoretically predicted and experimentally confirmed in the $beta$-phase of quasi-one-dimensional bismuth iodide Bi$_4$I$_4$. The electronic structure of $beta$-Bi$_4$I$_4$, characterized by Z$_2$ invariants (1;110), is in proximity of both the weak TI phase (0;001) and the trivial insulator phase (0;000). Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements on the (001) surface reveal a highly anisotropic band-crossing feature located at the point of the surface Brillouin zone and showing no dispersion with the photon energy, thus being fully consistent with the theoretical prediction.
Quasi-one-dimensional (1D) materials provide a superior platform for characterizing and tuning topological phases for two reasons: i) existence for multiple cleavable surfaces that enables better experimental identification of topological classification, and ii) stronger response to perturbations such as strain for tuning topological phases compared to higher dimensional crystal structures. In this paper, we present experimental evidence for a room-temperature topological phase transition in the quasi-1D material Bi$_4$I$_4$, mediated via a first order structural transition between two distinct stacking orders of the weakly-coupled chains. Using high resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on the two natural cleavable surfaces, we identify the high temperature $beta$ phase to be the first weak topological insulator with gapless Dirac cones on the (100) surface and no Dirac crossing on the (001) surface, while in the low temperature $alpha$ phase, the topological surface state on the (100) surface opens a gap, consistent with a recent theoretical prediction of a higher-order topological insulator beyond the scope of the established topological materials databases that hosts gapless hinge states. Our results not only identify a rare topological phase transition between first-order and second-order topological insulators but also establish a novel quasi-1D material platform for exploring unprecedented physics.
We investigated magnetic and thermodynamic properties of $S$ = 1/2 quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet KCuMoO$_4$(OH) through single crystalline magnetization and heat capacity measurements. At zero field, it behaves as a uniform $S$ = 1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet with $J$ = 238 K, and exhibits a canted antiferromagnetism below $T_mathrm{N}$ = 1.52 K. In addition, a magnetic field $H$ induces the anisotropy in magnetization and opens a gap in the spin excitation spectrum. These properties are understood in terms of an effective staggered field induced by staggered g-tensors and Dzyaloshinsky-Moriya (DM) interactions. Temperature-dependencies of the heat capacity and their field variations are consistent with those expected for quantum sine-Gordon model, indicating that spin excitations consist of soliton, anti-soliton and breather modes. From field-dependencies of the soliton mass, the staggered field normalized by the uniform field $c_mathrm{s}$ is estimated as 0.041, 0.174, and 0.030, for $H parallel a$, $b$, and $c$, respectively. Such a large variation of $c_mathrm{s}$ is understood as the combination of staggered g-tensors and DM interactions which induce the staggered field in the opposite direction for $H parallel a$ and $c$ but almost the same direction for $H parallel b$ at each Cu site.
We comprehensively investigate the nontrivial states of interacting Bose system in one-dimensional optical superlattices under the open boundary condition. Our results show that there exists a kind of stable localized states: edge gap solitons. We argue that the states originate from the eigenstates of independent edge parabolas. In particular, the edge gap solitons exhibit a nonzero topological invariant. The topological nature is due to the connection of the present model to the quantized adiabatic particle transport problem. In addition, the composition relations between the gap solitons and the extend states under the open boundary condition are discussed.
Based on density functional theory (DFT), we investigate the electronic properties of bulk and single-layer ZrTe$_4$Se. The band structure of bulk ZrTe$_4$Se can produce a semimetal-to-topological insulator (TI) phase transition under uniaxial strain. The maximum global band gap is 0.189 eV at the 7% tensile strain. Meanwhile, the Z$_2$ invariants (0; 110) demonstrate conclusively it is a weak topological insulator (WTI). The two Dirac cones for the (001) surface further confirm the nontrivial topological nature. The single-layer ZrTe$_4$Se is a quantum spin Hall (QSH) insulator with a band gap 86.4 meV and Z$_2$=1, the nontrivial metallic edge states further confirm the nontrivial topological nature. The maximum global band gap is 0.211 eV at the tensile strain 8%. When the compressive strain is more than 1%, the band structure of single-layer ZrTe$_4$Se produces a TI-to-semimetal transition. These theoretical analysis may provide a method for searching large band gap TIs and platform for topological nanoelectronic device applications.