Cano and Collaborators Create Framework to Design Topological Materials
Dr. Cano and collaborators worldwide have developed a method that predicts whether
metallic materials are likely to have the kinds of strong electron interactions that
lead to topological states.
A figure from the published paper, detailing the design process (a, b), the strengths of potential materials (c), and characteristics of the first created material (d, e).
"Since we developed the theory of topological quantum chemistry, it has been a longstanding
goal to apply the formalism to strongly correlated materials. Our work is the first
step in that direction."
- Dr. Cano
The framework's development used a key feature of crystalline structures: symmetry. Using symmetry arguments, certain behaviors can be deduced without resorting to expensive calculations.
"What we postulated was that strongly correlated excitations are still subject to symmetry
requirements. Because of that, I can say a lot about the topology of a system without
resorting to ab initio calculations that are often required but are particularly challenging
for studying strongly correlated materials."
- Dr. Si, collaborator
An interview article published by the university may be found here. The article, published online in Nature Physics, may be found here.