Topological Anderson Insulator in Three Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that strong disorder can induce a three-dimensional topological insulator phase, called the Topological Anderson Insulator, transforming a metal into a topological phase due to disorder effects.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of a three-dimensional Topological Anderson Insulator, showing disorder can create a topological phase rather than just disrupt order.

Findings

Disorder can induce a topological insulator phase in 3D.

Strong spin-orbit coupling combined with disorder leads to a new topological phase.

The Topological Anderson Insulator is robust against certain levels of disorder.

Abstract

Disorder, ubiquitously present in solids, is normally detrimental to the stability of ordered states of matter. In this letter we demonstrate that not only is the physics of a strong topological insulator robust to disorder but, remarkably, under certain conditions disorder can become fundamentally responsible for its existence. We show that disorder, when sufficiently strong, can transform an ordinary metal with strong spin-orbit coupling into a strong topological `Anderson' insulator, a new topological phase of quantum matter in three dimensions.