PHY599: Seminar Presentation [10/30/2013]

Surface State Magnetization and Chiral Edge States on Topological Insulators

Supervisor: Prof. Hanno Weitering Umesh Kumar First Year Graduate

Topological Insulator
Topological insulators are insulating materials that conduct electricity on their surface via special surface electronic states The surface states of topological insulators are topologically protected, which means that unlike ordinary surface states they cannot be destroyed by impurities or imperfections Topological insulators are made possible because of two features of quantum mechanics: symmetry under the reversal of the direction of time; and the spin orbit interaction, which occurs in heavy elements such as mercury and bismuth The topological insulator states in 2D and 3D materials were predicted theoretically in 2005 and 2007, prior to their experimental discovery

Energy states of a topological Insulators

Conventional Insulator and Topological Insulator

Structure of Bismuth Selenide

Topological Surface state

Here,

Surface magnetization effects

Magnetization perpendicular to QLs breaks the T-symmetry , by lifting the Kramerss degeneracy, leading to surface gap

Magnetization parallel to QLs shifts the momentum of the Dirac point

1D chiral Edge state

Mass term and Hall conductivity Switches sign across =0

Relevance of Paper
Develops understanding of the interaction of TI surface states with a ferromagnetically ordered medium, with a surprising criterion for the presence of a chiral edge state (QAHeffect) with no need of magnetic anisotropy. The breaking of symmetry also serves as platform for observing Majorana Fermion. Proposed chiral state may be observed by STM at the corner of the TI zigzag that forms the intergrowth with ferromagnet. It shed light on cleavage surface transport experiments where it is crucial to minimize the influence from the side face, i.e., making samples in the square shape surface magnetization can be built into the topological boundary condition of Tis as a family of surface potentials that break T-symmetry but preserve P symmetry.