Theory of the topological Anderson insulator

Details Theory of the topological Anderson insulator Theory of the topological Anderson insulator

2009-08-06

arxiv.org/abs/0908.0881v2

Phys.Rev.Lett. 103, 196805 (2009)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

4 pages, 3 figures (updated figures, calculated DOS)

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.196805

We present an effective medium theory that explains the disorder-induced transition into a phase of quantized conductance, discovered in computer simulations of HgTe quantum wells. It is the combination of a random potential and quadratic corrections proportional to p^2 sigma_z to the Dirac Hamiltonian that can drive an ordinary band insulator into a topological insulator (having an inverted band gap). We calculate the location of the phase boundary at weak disorder and show that it corresponds to the crossing of a band edge rather than a mobility edge. Our mechanism for the formation of a topological Anderson insulator is generic, and would apply as well to three-dimensional semiconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling.

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