Random flux is commonly believed to be incapable of driving full metal-insulator transitions in noninteracting systems. Here we show that random flux can after all induce a full metal–band insulator transition in the two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Remarkably, we find that the resulting insulator can be an extrinsic higher-order topological insulator with zero-energy corner modes in proper regimes, rather than a conventional Anderson insulator. Employing both level statistics and finite-size scaling analysis, we characterize the metal–band insulator transition and numerically extract its critical exponent as ν=2.48±0.08. To reveal the physical mechanism underlying the transition, we present an effective band structure picture based on the random-flux averaged Green's function.
Description
Phys. Rev. B 106, L081410 (2022) - Transition from metal to higher-order topological insulator driven by random flux
%0 Journal Article
%1 PhysRevB.106.L081410
%A Li, Chang-An
%A Zhang, Song-Bo
%A Budich, Jan Carl
%A Trauzettel, Björn
%D 2022
%I American Physical Society
%J Phys. Rev. B
%K a
%N 8
%P L081410
%R 10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L081410
%T Transition from metal to higher-order topological insulator driven by random flux
%U https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L081410
%V 106
%X Random flux is commonly believed to be incapable of driving full metal-insulator transitions in noninteracting systems. Here we show that random flux can after all induce a full metal–band insulator transition in the two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Remarkably, we find that the resulting insulator can be an extrinsic higher-order topological insulator with zero-energy corner modes in proper regimes, rather than a conventional Anderson insulator. Employing both level statistics and finite-size scaling analysis, we characterize the metal–band insulator transition and numerically extract its critical exponent as ν=2.48±0.08. To reveal the physical mechanism underlying the transition, we present an effective band structure picture based on the random-flux averaged Green's function.
@article{PhysRevB.106.L081410,
abstract = {Random flux is commonly believed to be incapable of driving full metal-insulator transitions in noninteracting systems. Here we show that random flux can after all induce a full metal–band insulator transition in the two-dimensional Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Remarkably, we find that the resulting insulator can be an extrinsic higher-order topological insulator with zero-energy corner modes in proper regimes, rather than a conventional Anderson insulator. Employing both level statistics and finite-size scaling analysis, we characterize the metal–band insulator transition and numerically extract its critical exponent as ν=2.48±0.08. To reveal the physical mechanism underlying the transition, we present an effective band structure picture based on the random-flux averaged Green's function.},
added-at = {2023-10-06T15:27:33.000+0200},
author = {Li, Chang-An and Zhang, Song-Bo and Budich, Jan Carl and Trauzettel, Björn},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/280f1fab51636db35691fc482119d8bd4/ctqmat},
day = 29,
description = {Phys. Rev. B 106, L081410 (2022) - Transition from metal to higher-order topological insulator driven by random flux},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L081410},
interhash = {902d080e0711fc93544af79362d33b26},
intrahash = {80f1fab51636db35691fc482119d8bd4},
journal = {Phys. Rev. B},
keywords = {a},
month = {08},
number = 8,
numpages = {7},
pages = {L081410},
publisher = {American Physical Society},
timestamp = {2023-10-06T15:27:33.000+0200},
title = {Transition from metal to higher-order topological insulator driven by random flux},
url = {https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.L081410},
volume = 106,
year = 2022
}