Higher-order topological Anderson insulators in quasicrystals

TL;DR

This paper explores how disorder influences higher-order topological phases in quasicrystals, revealing the emergence of disorder-induced topological states called higher-order topological Anderson insulators.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of higher-order topological Anderson insulators in quasicrystals, extending the understanding of disorder effects on topological phases to aperiodic systems.

Findings

Higher-order topological insulators are robust against weak disorder.

Disorder induces higher-order topological Anderson insulators.

The study extends topological disorder effects to quasicrystalline systems.

Abstract

The disorder effects on higher-order topological phases in periodic systems have attracted much attention. However, in aperiodic systems, such as quasicrystalline systems, the interplay between disorder and higher-order topology is still unclear. In this paper, we investigate the effects of disorder on two types of second-order topological insulators, including a quasicrystalline quadrupole insulator and a modified quantum spin Hall insulator, in a two-dimensional Amman-Beenker tiling quasicrystalline lattice. We demonstrate that the higher-order topological insulators are robust against weak disorder in both models. More striking, the disorder-induced higher-order topological insulators called higher-order topological Anderson insulators are found at a certain region of disorder strength in both models. Our paper extends the study of the interplay between disorder and higher-order topology to quasicrystalline systems.