Third-order topological insulator induced by disorder

Author:

Hugo Lóio, Miguel Gonçalves, Pedro Ribeiro, Eduardo V. Castro

Keyword:

Condensed Matter, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks, Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn)

journal:

date:

2023-05-29 16:00:00

Abstract

We have found the first instance of a third-order topological Anderson insulator (TOTAI). This disorder-induced topological phase is gapped and characterized by a quantized octupole moment and topologically protected corner states, as revealed by a detailed numerically exact analysis. We also find that the disorder-induced transition into the TOTAI phase can be analytically captured with remarkable accuracy using the self-consistent Born approximation. For a larger disorder strength, the TOTAI undergoes a transition to a trivial diffusive metal, that in turn becomes an Anderson insulator at even larger disorder. Our findings show that disorder can induce third-order topological phases in 3D, therefore extending the class of known higher-order topological Anderson insulators.

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