Structural disorder in topological materials - Livestream

The use of crystal symmetries and band representations have enabled a classification scheme for crystalline topological materials, leading to large scale topological materials discovery. Amorphous materials lie beyond this classification due to the lack of long-range order, but still can host topological states. In this talk I will first present data on amorphous Bi2Se3, which is a topological insulator in its crystalline form. I will show evidence of spin-momentum locked surface states in amorphous Bi2Se3. In the second part of the talk I will discuss how disorder in the local atomic environment of BiTeI induces a topological phase transition via first principles calculations. Understanding how local environments produce topological phases is a key step for predicting disordered and amorphous topological materials to be used in scalable topological devices.

Speaker: Paul Joseph Corbae, UC Berkeley

Attend in person or online.  See weblink for Zoom information