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Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals

An early triumph of quantum mechanics was the explanation of metallic and insulating behavior based on the filling of electronic bands. A complementary, classical picture of insulators depicts electrons as occupying localized and symmetric Wannier orbitals that resemble atomic orbitals. We report th...

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Autores principales: Po, Hoi Chun, Watanabe, Haruki, Zaletel, Michael P., Vishwanath, Ashvin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846451/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27152352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501782
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author Po, Hoi Chun
Watanabe, Haruki
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
author_facet Po, Hoi Chun
Watanabe, Haruki
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
author_sort Po, Hoi Chun
collection PubMed
description An early triumph of quantum mechanics was the explanation of metallic and insulating behavior based on the filling of electronic bands. A complementary, classical picture of insulators depicts electrons as occupying localized and symmetric Wannier orbitals that resemble atomic orbitals. We report the theoretical discovery of band insulators for which electron filling forbids such an atomic description. We refer to them as filling-enforced quantum band insulators (feQBIs) because their wave functions are associated with an essential degree of quantum entanglement. Like topological insulators, which also do not admit an atomic description, feQBIs need spin-orbit coupling for their realization. However, they do not necessarily support gapless surface states. Instead, the band topology is reflected in the insulating behavior at an unconventional filling. We present tight binding models of feQBIs and show that they only occur in certain nonsymmorphic, body-centered cubic crystals.
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spelling pubmed-48464512016-05-05 Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals Po, Hoi Chun Watanabe, Haruki Zaletel, Michael P. Vishwanath, Ashvin Sci Adv Research Articles An early triumph of quantum mechanics was the explanation of metallic and insulating behavior based on the filling of electronic bands. A complementary, classical picture of insulators depicts electrons as occupying localized and symmetric Wannier orbitals that resemble atomic orbitals. We report the theoretical discovery of band insulators for which electron filling forbids such an atomic description. We refer to them as filling-enforced quantum band insulators (feQBIs) because their wave functions are associated with an essential degree of quantum entanglement. Like topological insulators, which also do not admit an atomic description, feQBIs need spin-orbit coupling for their realization. However, they do not necessarily support gapless surface states. Instead, the band topology is reflected in the insulating behavior at an unconventional filling. We present tight binding models of feQBIs and show that they only occur in certain nonsymmorphic, body-centered cubic crystals. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4846451/ /pubmed/27152352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501782 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Po, Hoi Chun
Watanabe, Haruki
Zaletel, Michael P.
Vishwanath, Ashvin
Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title_full Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title_fullStr Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title_full_unstemmed Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title_short Filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
title_sort filling-enforced quantum band insulators in spin-orbit coupled crystals
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4846451/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27152352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501782
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