Topological River Gadway (IMAGE)
Caption
Artist's depiction of a disorder-induced transition to the topological Anderson insulator phase. A river flowing along a straight path is altered by disorder in the underlying landscape. After going through a transition (waterfall), the river forms a closed loop -- a shape with a different topology than that of the initially straight path. In the topological Anderson insulator phase, the trivial band structure of a normal material is transformed into a topologically nontrivial band structure due to disorder and disruptions in the tunnel couplings between lattice sites. The winding number in the topological Anderson insulator phase is distinct from that of the normal case without disorder.
Credit
Lachina Creative, copyright Bryce Gadway, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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