Partial lattice defects in higher order topological insulators

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that higher-order topological insulators can host helical modes along partial lattice defects like dislocations and stacking faults, even without weak topological indices, affecting material conductivity.

Contribution

It reveals the existence of helical modes at partial dislocations in HOTIs without relying on weak topological indices, expanding understanding of defect-bound states.

Findings

Helical modes can exist at partial dislocations in HOTIs.

These modes are bound to defects with fractional Burgers vectors.

Presence of such modes can influence the conductivity of bulk crystals.

Abstract

Nonzero weak topological indices are thought to be a necessary condition to bind a single helical mode to lattice dislocations. In this work we show that higher-order topological insulators (HOTIs) can, in fact, host a single helical mode along screw or edge dislocations (including step edges) in the absence of weak topological indices. When this occurs, the helical mode is necessarily bound to a dislocation characterized by a fractional Burgers vector, macroscopically detected by the existence of a stacking fault. The robustness of a helical mode on a partial defect is demonstrated by an adiabatic transformation that restores translation symmetry in the stacking fault. We present two examples of HOTIs, one intrinsic and one extrinsic, that show helical modes at partial dislocations. Since partial defects and stacking faults are commonplace in bulk crystals, the existence of such helical modes can measurably affect the expected conductivity in these materials.