Localized surfaces of three-dimensional topological insulators
Yang-Zhi Chou, Rahul M. Nandkishore, Leo Radzihovsky
2019
Physical review B
We study the surface of a three-dimensional spin chiral Z_2 topological insulator (class CII), demonstrating the possibility of its localization. This arises through an interplay of interaction and statistically-symmetric disorder, that confines the gapless fermionic degrees of freedom to a network of one-dimensional helical domain-walls that can be localized. We identify two distinct regimes of this gapless insulating phase, a 'clogged' regime wherein the network localization is induced by its
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... junctions between otherwise metallic helical domain-walls, and a 'fully localized' regime of localized domain-walls. The experimental signatures of these regimes are also discussed.
doi:10.1103/physrevb.99.165108
fatcat:znqrum3y6fgjdd6u6w72pkuc6m