Topological Anderson Insulator

Abstract

Disorder plays an important role in two dimensions, and is responsible for striking phenomena such as metal insulator transition and the integral and fractional quantum Hall effects. In this paper, we investigate the role of disorder in the context of the recently discovered topological insulator, which possesses a pair of helical edge states with opposing spins moving in opposite directions and exhibits the phenomenon of quantum spin Hall effect. We predict an unexpected and nontrivial quantum phase termed "topological Anderson insulator," which is obtained by introducing impurities in a two-dimensional metal; here disorder not only causes metal insulator transition, as anticipated, but is fundamentally responsible for creating extended edge states. We determine the phase diagram of the topological Anderson insulator and outline its experimental consequences.

4 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Phase transition between the quantum spin Hall and insulator phases in 3D: emergence of a topological gapless phase
• The Kernel Polynomial Method
• The Helical Liquid and the Edge of Quantum Spin Hall Systems
• Finite size effects of helical edge states in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells
• Many-body generalization of the Z2 topological invariant for the quantum spin Hall effect

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Coherent Oscillations and Giant Edge Magnetoresistance in Singly Connected Topological Insulators