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TT: Fachverband Tiefe Temperaturen
TT 1: Tutorial: Topological Insulators and Majorana-Fermion Physics
TT 1.1: Tutorial
Sunday, March 10, 2013, 16:00–16:45, H20
Topological Insulators and Superconductors — •Andreas Schnyder — Max Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung, D-70569 Stuttgart, Germany
The recent discovery of new topological electronic phases in insulating materials with strong spin-orbit coupling has lead to a renewed interest in topological states of matter. These topological materials have a full insulating gap in the bulk and support exotic metallic surface states, which are a consequence of bulk topological invariants. Topological insulating states have been observed in HgTe/(Hg,Ce)Te semiconductor quantum wells, in BiSb alloys, in Bi2Se3, and in other Bi-based compounds. Topological superconductor are fully gapped superconductors that exhibit zero-energy Majorana surface states. Here we review the theoretical foundations for topological insulators and superconductors, discuss topological band theory, and survey recent experimental findings on three-dimensional topological insulators and superconductors.