We numerically investigate the topological phase transition induced purely by disorder in a spring-mass chain. We employ two types of disorders - chiral and random types - to explore the interplay between topology and disorder. By tracking the evolution of real space topological invariants, we obtain the topological phase diagrams and demonstrate the bilateral capacity of disorder to drive topological transitions, from topologically nontrivial to trivial and vice versa. The corresponding transition is accompanied by the realization of a mechanical Topological Anderson Insulator. The findings from this study hint that the combination of disorder and topology can serve as an efficient control knob to manipulate the transfer of mechanical energy.
Disorder, ubiquitously present in realistic structures, is generally thought to disturb the performance of analog wave devices, as it often causes strong multiple scattering effects that largely arrest wave transportation. Contrary to this general view, here, it is shown that, in some wave systems with non-trivial topological character, strong randomness can be highly beneficial, acting as a powerful stimulator to enable desired analog filtering operations. This is achieved in a topological Anderson sonic crystal that, in the regime of dominating randomness, provides a well-defined filtering response characterized by a Lorentzian spectral line-shape. Our theoretical and experimental results, serving as the first realization of topological Anderson insulator phase in acoustics, suggest the striking possibility of achieving specific, non-random analog filtering operations by adding randomness to clean structures.
We report the study of a tri-axial vector magnetoresistance (MR) in nonmagnetic (Bi1-xInx)2Se3 nanodevices at the composition of x = 0.08. We show a dumbbell-shaped in-plane negative MR up to room temperature as well as a large out-of-plane positive MR. MR at three directions is about in a -3%: -1%: 225% ratio at 2 K. Through both the thickness and composition-dependent magnetotransport measurements, we show that the in-plane negative MR is due to the topological phase transition enhanced intersurface coupling near the topological critical point. Our devices suggest the great potential for room-temperature spintronic applications, for example, vector magnetic sensors.
Clustering $unicode{x2013}$ the tendency for neighbors of nodes to be connected $unicode{x2013}$ quantifies the coupling of a complex network to its underlying latent metric space. In random geometric graphs, clustering undergoes a continuous phase transition, separating a phase with finite clustering from a regime where clustering vanishes in the thermodynamic limit. We prove this geometric-to-nongeometric phase transition to be topological in nature, with atypical features such as diverging free energy and entropy as well as anomalous finite size scaling behavior. Moreover, a slow decay of clustering in the nongeometric phase implies that some real networks with relatively high levels of clustering may be better described in this regime.
We propose two kinds of distinguishing parameter regimes to induce topological Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) phase in a one dimensional (1D) multi-resonator cavity optomechanical system via modulating the frequencies of both cavity fields and resonators. The introduction of the frequency modulations allows us to eliminate the Stokes heating process for the mapping of the tight-binding Hamiltonian without usual rotating wave approximation, which is totally different from the traditional mapping of the topological tight-binding model. We find that the tight-binding Hamiltonian can be mapped into a topological SSH phase via modifying the Bessel function originating from the frequency modulations of cavity fields and resonators, and the induced SSH phase is independent on the effective optomechanical coupling strength. On the other hand, the insensitivity of the system to the effective optomechanical coupling provides us another new path to induce the topological SSH phase based on the present 1D cavity optomechanical system. And we show that the system can exhibit a topological SSH phase via varying the effective optomechanical coupling strength in an alternative way, which is much more easier to be achieved in experiment. Furthermore, we also construct an analogous bosonic Kitaev model with the trivial topology by keeping the Stokes heating processes. Our scheme provides a steerable platform to investigate the effects of next-nearest-neighboring interactions on the topology of the system.
Topological insulators (TI) are a phase of matter that host unusual metallic states on their surfaces. Unlike the states that exist on the surface of conventional materials, these so-called topological surfaces states (TSS) are protected against disorder-related localization effects by time reversal symmetry through strong spin-orbit coupling. By combining transport measurements, angle-resolved photo-emission spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that there exists a critical level of disorder beyond which the TI Bi2Se3 loses its ability to protect the metallic TSS and transitions to a fully insulating state. The absence of the metallic surface channels dictates that there is a change in topological character, implying that disorder can lead to a topological phase transition even without breaking the time reversal symmetry. This observation challenges the conventional notion of topologically-protected surface states, and will provoke new studies as to the fundamental nature of topological phase of matter in the presence of disorder.