Topological Insulator in an Atomic Liquid

Abstract

We demonstrate theoretically an atomic liquid phase that supports topologically nontrivial electronic structure. A minimum two-orbital model of liquid topological insulator in two dimensions is constructed within the framework of tight-binding molecular dynamics. As temperature approaches zero, our simulations show that the atoms crystallize into a triangular lattice with nontrivial band topology at high densities. Thermal fluctuations at finite temperatures melt the lattice, giving rise to a liquid state which inherits the nontrivial topology from the crystalline phase. The electronic structure of the resultant atomic liquid is characterized by a nonzero Bott index. Our work broadens the notion of topological materials, and points to a new systematic approach for searching topological phases in amorphous and liquid systems.

5 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (17)

• Higher-order topological insulators in amorphous solids
• Topological Amorphous Metals
• Structural Disorder Induced Second-order Topological Insulators in Three Dimensions
• Amorphous topological matter: theory and experiment
• Higher-order topological phases in crystalline and non-crystalline systems: a review
• Topological phase transitions in glassy quantum matter
• Symmetry-Protected Topological Phases in a Rydberg Glass
• Fractionalization and topology in amorphous electronic solids
• Topological and conventional phases of a three dimensional electron glass
• Topological Anderson insulators in an Ammann-Beenker quasicrystal and a snub-square crystal
• Average Symmetry Protected Higher-order Topological Amorphous Insulators
• Density-driven higher-order topological phase transitions in amorphous solids
• Topological diffusive metal in amorphous transition metal monosilicides
• Structure-driven phase transitions in paracrystalline topological insulators
• Topological band insulators without translational symmetry
• Three-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in Topological Amorphous Metals
• Non-self-averaging topological Anderson insulator