Actinide Topological Insulator Materials with Strong Interaction

TL;DR

This paper predicts a new class of topological Mott insulators in actinide compounds, where strong electron interactions induce a quantum phase transition to a topologically nontrivial phase with unique surface states.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of interaction-driven topological phases in actinide materials, expanding the understanding of topological insulators beyond spin-orbit effects.

Findings

Interaction induces a quantum phase transition in Pu and Am compounds.

The resulting phase is a topological Mott insulator with a single Dirac cone surface state.

Actinide compounds can host strongly correlated topological phases.

Abstract

Topological band insulators have recently been discovered in spin-orbit coupled two and three dimensional systems. In this work, we theoretically predict a class of topological Mott insulators where interaction effects play a dominant role. In actinide elements, simple rocksalt compounds formed by Pu and Am lie on the boundary of metal to insulator transition. We show that interaction drives a quantum phase transition to a topological Mott insulator phase with a single Dirac cone on the surface.