We develop a general theory for two-dimensional (2D) anomalous Floquet higher-order topological superconductors (AFHOTSC), which are dynamical Majorana-carrying phases of matter with no static counterpart. Despite the triviality of its bulk Floquet b
ands, an AFHOTSC generically features the simultaneous presence of corner-localized Majorana modes at both zero and $pi/T$ quasi-energies, a phenomenon beyond the scope of any static topological band theory. We show that the key to AFHOTSC is its unavoidable singular behavior in the phase spectrum of the bulk time-evolution operator. By mapping such evolution-phase singularities to the stroboscopic boundary signatures, we classify all 2D AFHOTSCs that are protected by a rotation group symmetry in symmetry class D. We further extract a higher-order topological index for unambiguously predicting the presence of Floquet corner Majorana modes, which we confirm numerically. Our theory serves as a milestone towards a dynamical topological theory for Floquet superconducting systems.
Various exotic topological phases of Floquet systems have been shown to arise from crystalline symmetries. Yet, a general theory for Floquet topology that is applicable to all crystalline symmetry groups is still in need. In this work, we propose suc
h a theory for (effectively) non-interacting Floquet crystals. We first introduce quotient winding data to classify the dynamics of the Floquet crystals with equivalent symmetry data, and then construct dynamical symmetry indicators (DSIs) to sufficiently indicate the inherently dynamical Floquet crystals. The DSI and quotient winding data, as well as the symmetry data, are all computationally efficient since they only involve a small number of Bloch momenta. We demonstrate the high efficiency by computing all elementary DSI sets for all spinless and spinful plane groups using the mathematical theory of monoid, and find a large number of different nontrivial classifications, which contain both first-order and higher-order 2+1D anomalous Floquet topological phases. Using the framework, we further find a new 3+1D anomalous Floquet second-order topological insulator (AFSOTI) phase with anomalous chiral hinge modes.
We establish quasi-two-dimensional thin films of iron-based superconductors (FeSCs) as a new high-temperature platform for hosting intrinsic time-reversal-invariant helical topological superconductivity (TSC). Based on the combination of Dirac surfac
e state and bulk extended $s$-wave pairing, our theory should be directly applicable to a large class of experimentally established FeSCs, opening a new TSC paradigm. In particular, an applied electric field serves as a topological switch for helical Majorana edge modes in FeSC thin films, allowing for an experimentally feasible design of gate-controlled helical Majorana circuits. Applying an in-plane magnetic field drives the helical TSC phase into a higher-order TSC carrying corner-localized Majorana zero modes. Our proposal should enable the experimental realization of helical Majorana fermions.
We show that Floquet chiral topological superconductivity arises naturally in Josephson junctions made of magnetic topological insulator-superconductor sandwich structures. The Josephson phase modulation associated with an applied bias voltage across
the junction drives the system into the anomalous Floquet chiral topological superconductor hosting chiral Majorana edge modes in the quasienergy spectrum, with the bulk Floquet bands carrying zero Chern numbers. The bias voltage acts as a tuning parameter enabling novel dynamical topological quantum phase transitions driving the system into a myriad of exotic Majorana-carrying Floquet topological superconducting phases. Our theory establishes a new paradigm for realizing Floquet chiral topological superconductivity in solid-state systems, which should be experimentally directly accessible.
Periodically-driven or Floquet systems can realize anomalous topological phenomena that do not exist in any equilibrium states of matter, whose classification and characterization require new theoretical ideas that are beyond the well-established par
adigm of static topological phases. In this work, we provide a general framework to understand anomalous Floquet higher-order topological insulators (AFHOTIs), the classification of which has remained a challenging open question. In two dimensions (2D), such AFHOTIs are defined by their robust, symmetry-protected corner modes pinned at special quasienergies, even though all their Floquet bands feature trivial band topology. The corner-mode physics of an AFHOTI is found to be generically indicated by 3D Dirac/Weyl-like topological singularities living in the phase spectrum of the bulk time-evolution operator. Physically, such a phase-band singularity is essentially a footprint of the topological quantum criticality, which separates an AFHOTI from a trivial phase adiabatically connected to a static limit. Strikingly, these singularities feature unconventional dispersion relations that cannot be achieved on any static lattice in 3D, which, nevertheless, resemble the surface physics of 4D topological crystalline insulators. We establish the above higher-order bulk-boundary correspondence through a dimensional reduction technique, which also allows for a systematic classification of 2D AFHOTIs protected by point group symmetries. We demonstrate applications of our theory to two concrete, experimentally feasible models of AFHOTIs protected by $C_2$ and $D_4$ symmetries, respectively. Our work paves the way for a unified theory for classifying and characterizing Floquet topological matters.
We extend the notion of fragile topology to periodically-driven systems. We demonstrate driving-induced fragile topology in two different models, namely, the Floquet honeycomb model and the Floquet $pi$-flux square-lattice model. In both cases, we di
scover a rich phase diagram that includes Floquet fragile topological phases protected by crystalline rotation or mirror symmetries, Floquet Chern insulators, and trivial atomic phases, with distinct boundary features. Remarkably, the transitions between different phases can be feasibly achieved by simply tuning the driving amplitudes, which is a unique feature of driving-enabled topological phenomena. Moreover, corner-localized fractional charges are identified as a ``smoking-gun signal of fragile topology in our systems. Our work paves the way for studying and realizing fragile topology in Floquet systems.
We propose a minimal lattice model for two-dimensional class DIII superconductors with $C_2$-protected higher-order topology. While this class of superconductors cannot be topologically characterized by symmetry eigenvalues at high symmetry momenta,
we propose a simple Wannier-orbital-based real-space diagnosis to unambiguously capture the corresponding higher-order topology. We further identify and characterize a variety of conventional topological phases in our minimal model, including a weak topological superconductor and a nodal topological superconductor with chiral-symmetry protection. The disorder effect is also systematically studied to demonstrate the robustness of higher-order bulk-boundary correspondence. Our theory lays the groundwork for predicting and diagnosing $C_2$-protected higher-order topology in class DIII superconductors.
Majorana zero mode is an exotic quasi-particle excitation with non-Abelian statistics in topological superconductor systems, and can serve as the cornerstone for topological quantum computation, a new type of fault-tolerant quantum computation archit
ecture. This review paper highlights recent progress in realizing Majorana modes in iron-based high-temperature superconductors. We begin with the discussion on topological aspect of electronic band structures in iron-based superconductor compounds. Then we focus on several concrete proposals for Majorana modes, including the Majorana zero modes inside the vortex core on the surface of Fe(Te,Se), helical Majorana modes at the hinge of Fe(Te,Se), the Majorana zero modes at the corner of the Fe(Te,Se)/FeTe heterostructure or the monolayer Fe(Te,Se) under an in-plane magnetic field. We also review the current experimental stage and provide the perspective and outlook for this rapidly developing field.
We propose a general theoretical framework for both constructing and diagnosing symmetry-protected higher-order topological superconductors using Kitaev building blocks, a higher-dimensional generalization of Kitaevs one-dimensional Majorana model. F
or a given crystalline symmetry, the Kitaev building blocks serve as a complete basis to construct all possible Kitaev superconductors that satisfy the symmetry requirements. Based on this Kitaev construction, we identify a simple but powerful bulk Majorana counting rule that can unambiguously diagnose the existence of higher-order topology for all Kitaev superconductors. For a systematic construction, we propose two inequivalent stacking strategies using the Kitaev building blocks and provide minimal tight-binding models to explicitly demonstrate each stacking approach. Notably, some of our Kitaev superconductors host higher-order topology that cannot be captured by the existing symmetry indicators in the literature. Nevertheless, our Majorana counting rule does enable a correct diagnosis for these beyond-indicator models. We conjecture that all Wannierizable superconductors should yield a decomposition in terms of our Kitaev building blocks, up to adiabatic deformations. Based on this conjecture, we propose a universal diagnosis of higher-order topology that possibly works for all Wannierizable superconductors. We also present a realistic example of higher-order topological superconductors with fragile Wannier obstruction to verify our conjectured universal diagnosis. Our work paves the way for a complete topological theory for superconductors.
We introduce the topological mirror excitonic insulator as a new type of interacting topological crystalline phase in one dimension. Its mirror-symmetry-protected topological properties are driven by exciton physics, and it manifests in the quantized
bulk polarization and half-charge modes on the boundary. And the bosonization analysis is performed to demonstrate its robustness against strong correlation effects in one dimension. Besides, we also show that Rashba nanowires and Dirac semimetal nanowires could provide ideal experimental platforms to realize this new topological mirror excitonic insulating state. Its experimental consequences, such as quantized tunneling conductance in the tunneling measurement, are also discussed.
