Researcher Huang Huaqing's group and collaborators in the School of Physics reveal topological states induced by structural amorphization

Electronic properties in crystals are often critically related to structural symmetry, and the reduction or disruption of crystal structure symmetry due to amorphization can impair electronic properties

Recently, researcher Huang Huaqing's research group from the Institute of Theoretical Physics, School of Physics, Peking University, in collaboration with Professor Liu Feng from the University of Utah, found that structural amorphization can induce non-trivial electronic topological states in topologically mediocre crystals under appropriate conditions

Structural amorphization-induced topological phase transitions: (a–c) structural disorder induced by perturbation near the equilibrium position; (d) as the degree of structural disorder increases, the energy gap is closed and then opened again and the topologically undisturbed variable jump

On February 2, 2022, related research results were published online in Physical Review Letters under the title "Topological Order Induced by Structural Amorphization" ; Wang Citian, a 2018 undergraduate student of the School of Physics, was the first author, and Huang Huaqing was the first author.

The above research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key R&D Program, the Special Fund Project of Peking University for Building World-Class Universities (Disciplines) and Characteristic Development Guidance, as well as the Peking University High Energy Physics Research Center, the Collaborative Innovation Center for Quantum Matter Science, and Peking University High Performance Computing platform,