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A team of international scientists, including Maia G. Vergniory, researcher at Ikerbasque at DIPC and associated with the UPV / EHU, has discovered a new class of materials, top-level topological insulators. Theoretical physicists first predicted the existence of these insulators, which have conductive properties on the edges of crystals rather than on their surfaces, and conduct electricity without dissipation. Now these new properties are experimentally demonstrated in bismuth.
The current flows without resistance and reacts unconventionally to electric and magnetic fields. These unique properties have future applications in high performance electronics and quantum computing.
Topological topological insulators
Recently, a group of physicists from the International Center for Physics Donostia (DIPC), the University of the Basque Country (UPV / EHU), Princeton University and the Max Planck Institute for Microstructure have predicted a new class of topological materials with new conductive properties. Physics. Researchers call it "higher order topological insulators".
According to theoretical studies, conductive ridges are extraordinarily robust for higher order topological insulators. The current of the topological electrons can not be stopped by the impurities and if the crystal breaks, the new edges automatically conduct the current. However, the most extraordinary property of these new materials is that they can theoretically conduct electricity without any dissipation, as do low temperature superconductors. This would be a specific property of top-class topological insulators.
Bismuth is topological
However, it has been confirmed that bismuth, which is systematically described as topologically trivial cumbersome, obeys a high level generalized correspondence, that is to say that the hinges have topologically protected conductive modes instead of the surface. crystal.
The special topological properties of this element have been identified using symmetry arguments, topological indices, first-order calculations, and the recently introduced framework of topological quantum chemistry.
This phenomenon was then verified experimentally. With tunneling spectroscopy, the unique signatures of the rotational symmetry of one-dimensional states located on the edges of the crystalline surface have been proven. Using Josephson interferometry, scientists have demonstrated their universal topological contribution to electronic transport.
Finally, this work establishes bismuth as a higher order topological insulator and paves the way for the identification of new ones.
Explore more:
New insulators with conductive edges
More information:
Frank Schindler et al. Topology topology in bismuth, Physics of nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038 / s41567-018-0224-7
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