Topological Insulators

Akira Furusaki (Condensed Matter Theory Lab.)

=
topological insulators (3d and 2d)

Outline
Introduction: band theory Example of topological insulators: integer quantum Hall effect New members: Z2 topological insulators Table of topological insulators

Insulator
A material which resists the flow of electric current.

insulating materials

Band theory of electrons in solids

Ion (+ charge) electron Electrons moving in the lattice of ions

Schroedinger equation
' h2 2 $ ( + V (r )"! (r ) = E! (r ) %) & 2m #

Periodic electrostatic potential from ions and other electrons (mean-field)

V (r + a ) = V (r )

Blochs theorem:
" " # (r ) = e un ,k (r ), ! < k < , un ,k (r + a ) = un ,k (r ) a a
ikr

En (k ) Energy band dispersion

n : band index

Metal and insulator in the band theory E

Electrons are fermions (spin=1/2).
Each state (n,k) can accommodate up to two electrons (up, down spins).

"!

k
a

Pauli principle

Metal

empty states

Apply electric field

"!

k
a

"!

k
a

occupied states

ky

Flow of electric current

kx
Apply electric field

Band Insulator
E
~ Band gap V (k = ! / a )

"!

k
a

All the states in the lower band are completely filled. (2 electrons per unit cell)

Electric current does not flow under (weak) electric field.

Digression: other (named) insulators

Peierls insulator (lattice deformation)
E

"!

k
a

Mott insulator (Coulomb repulsion)

Large Coulomb energy! Electrons cannot move.

 Anderson insulator (impurity scattering)

electron

Random scattering causes interference of electrons wave function. standing wave

Anderson localization

Is that all?
No !

Yet another type of insulators: Topological insulators !

A topological insulator is a band insulator which is characterized by a topological number and which has gapless excitations at its boundaries.

Prominent example: quantum Hall effect

Classical Hall effect
+ + + + + +

r B
r v

!e
W

r E

! ! ! ! ! !

n : electron density
Electric current Electric field Hall voltage

I = !nevW
v E= B c

Lorentz force

r r r F = "ev ! B

B VH = EW = I ! ne B RH = Hall resistance ! ne 1 Hall conductance ! xy = RH

Integer quantum Hall effect

! xy = ! H

(von Klitzing 1980)

h = 25812.807! 2 e
! xx
Quantization of Hall conductance

! xy

e2 =i h

exact, robust against disorder etc.

Integer quantum Hall effect

Electrons are confined in a two-dimensional plane. (ex. AlGaAs/GaAs interface) Strong magnetic field is applied (perpendicular to the plane) r B
cyclotron motion

AlGaAs

GaAs

Landau levels:

En = h!c (n + ) ,
1 2

eB !c = , n = 0,1,2,... mc

"!

! k

TKNN number
den Nijs)
" xy = !
e C h
2

(Thouless-Kohmoto-NightingaleTKNN (1982); Kohmoto (1985)

first Chern number

(topological invariant)

r " = e ukr (r )
rr ik ! r

' * (u (u * (u $ 1 2 2 % (u C= k integer valued ! d band! d r % (k y (k x ) (k x (k y " " 2*i filled & # r r r r 1 2 = A( x , k y )= ukr ! k ukr k # d k " k ! A(k x , k y ) 2$i

Topological distinction of ground states

projection operator n empty bands m filled bands

ky
map from BZ to Grassmannian

kx

# 2 [ (m + n ) U (m )" U (n )]= ! U
homotopy class

IQHE

Edge states
There is a gapless chiral edge mode along the sample boundary. r E B

Number of edge modes =

! " xy e /h
2

=C

"!

! kx

Robust against disorder (chiral fermions cannot be backscattered)

m(y )
Effective field theory

H = #iv ( x " x + ! y " y )+ m(y ) z ! !

domain wall fermion

Topological Insulators

(definition ??)

(band) insulator with a nonzero gap to excitated states topological number stable against any (weak) perturbation gapless edge mode When the gapless mode appears/disappears, the bulk (band) gap closes. Quantum Phase Transition

Low-energy effective theory = topological field theory (Chern-Simons)

Fractional quantum Hall effect

2nd Landau level Even denominator (cf. Laughlin states: odd denominator) Moore-Read (Pfaffian) state z j = x j + iy j
* MR
) 1 = Pf ' 'z "z j ( i
2 & 2 " ! zi $ #( i " z j ) e z $ i< j %

5 != at 2

Pf (Aij )= det Aij

Pf(

) is equal to the BCS wave function of px+ipy pairing state.

Bound state of two spinless ferions: P-wave & angular momentum=1

Excitations above the Moore-Read state obey non-Abelian statistics.

Spinless px+ipy superconductor in 2 dim. r

Order parameter

!(k ) " #k #$ k " ! 0 (k x + ik y )

Chiral (Majorana) edge state

E
!0

 Majorana bound state in a quantum vortex

vortex ! =

hc e

Bogoliubov-de Gennes equation

& h0 $ * $( %

( #& u # &u # !$ ! = ) $ ! * !$ ! $v! ' h0 "% v " % "

r2 1 r h0 = p + eA ! EF 2m

& ( # &u # $ +!'$ ! $( ! $v! % " % "

particle-hole symmetry

& v* # &u # ) :$ ! ( ') :$ * ! $v! $u ! % " % "

$ n = n#0 , #0 " !20 / EF

zero mode

!0 = 0

" = " + (= ! ) Majorana (real) fermion!

braid groups, non-Abelian statistics

interchanging vortices

i+1

" i ! " i +1 ! i +1 # "! i

Quantum spin Hall effect (Z2 top. Insulator) Kane & Mele (2005, 2006); Bernevig & Zhang (2006)
Time-reversal invariant band insulator r r Strong spin-orbit interaction "L # ! Gapless helical edge mode (Kramers pair) r B
up-spin electrons

r !B

down-spin electrons

No spin rotation symmetry

 Quantum spin Hall insulator is characterized by Z2 topological index !

! =1 ! =0

an odd number of helical edge modes; Z2 topological insulator an even (0) number of helical edge modes
1 0 # of a pair of zeros of

r r & u k is u k Pf y j $ i %

()

() # ! "

Kane-Mele model graphene + SOI

[PRL 95, 146802 (2005)]

Quantum spin Hall effect

s " xy =

e 2!

Experiment
HgTe/(Hg,Cd)Te quantum wells
CdTe HgCdTe CdTe

Konig et al. [Science 318, 766 (2007)]

3-dimensional Z2 topological insulator

(strong) topological insulator
bulk: band insulator surface: an odd number of surface Dirac modes characterized by Z2 topological numbers
Ex: tight-binding model with SO int. on the diamond lattice [Fu, Kane, & Mele; PRL 98, 106803 (2007)]
bulk insulator

Moore & Balents; Roy; Fu, Kane & Mele (2006, 2007)
surface Dirac fermion

trivial insulator

Z2 topological insulator

trivial band insulator: 0 or an even number of surface Dirac modes

Surface Dirac fermions

topological insulator

A half of graphene
K K K K K K

E ky

kx

An odd number of Dirac fermions in 2 dimensions cf. Nielsen-Ninomiyas no-go theorem

Experiments
Bi1-xSbx

photon

p, E

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES)

Hsieh et al., Nature 452, 970 (2008)

An odd (5) number of surface Dirac modes were observed.

Experiments II
Bi2Se3
hydrogen atom of top. ins. Xia et al., arXiv:0812.2078 band calculation

Q: Are there other 3D topological insulators?

Yes!
Lets make a table of all possible topological insulators.

Classification of topological insulators

Topological insulators are stable against (weak) perturbations.
Random deformation of Hamiltonian

Natural framework: random matrix theory

Assume only basic discrete symmetries:

(Wigner, Dyson, Altland & Zirnbauer)

(1) time-reversal symmetry

TH *T !1 = H
(2) particle-hole symmetry

TRS =

0 no TRS T! +1 TRS with= +T (integer spin) -1 TRS with = !T (hal-odd integer spin) T" 0 no PHS C! +1 PHS with = +C (odd parity: p-wave) -1 PHS with = !C (even parity: s-wave) C"

CH C
"

!1

= !H
=
!1

PHS =

(3) TRS ! PHS

chiral symmetry [sublattice symmetry (SLS)]

TCH (TC ) = ! H

3 ! 3 + 1 = 10

10 random matrix ensembles

IQHE Z2 TPI

MR Pfaffian

Examples of topological insulators in 2 spatial dimensions

Integer quantum Hall Effect Z2 topological insulator (quantum spin Hall effect) also in 3D Moore-Read Pfaffian state (spinless p+ip superconductor)

Table of topologocal insulators in 1, 2, 3 dim. Schnyder, Ryu, Furusaki & Ludwig, PRB (2008)

Examples: (a)Integer Quantum Hall Insulator, (b) Quantum Spin Hall Insulator, (c) 3d Z2 Topological Insulator, (d) Spinless chiral p-wave (p+ip) superconductor (Moore-Read) (e)Chiral d-wave superconductor, (f) superconducto (g) 3He B phase.

Reordered Table

Kitaev, arXiv:0901.2686

Periodic table for topological insulators Classification in any dimension

Summary
Many topological insulators of non-interacting fermions have been found.
interacting fermions??

Gapless boundary modes (Dirac or Majorana)

stable against any (weak) perturbation disorder

Majorana fermions
to be found experimentally in solid-state devices