Project description
Understanding the nature of topological effects could pave the way for rational design
Topology has become a key area of research into the physics of materials, a prime example being how some insulators can conduct electricity along a single-atom layer on their surfaces. Topological materials are apparently hiding in plain sight, and a recent discovery suggests a ‘fragile’ version of topology might exist in all crystalline materials. However, little is known about the microscopic origin of topological effects. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the IPTM project is filling this gap to predict topological effects based on the contributions of quantum interactions. This could pave the way for new functionalities for future quantum technologies.
Objective
The recent classification of symmetry-indicated band structure topologies for all crystallographic structures has led to the prediction that one third of all materials are topological. We are thus at a very exciting crossroad where the theory of topological materials (TM) is gaining enough maturity to transform material science, opening the way to real settings and potential long term applications. There are however key challenges remaining for the building of efficient topological quantum devices. Indeed, little is known on the microscopic origin of topology in TM because (i) the general analytical conditions for nontrivial topology is unknown even for simple tight-binding models, (ii) there is a big jump in complexity towards the modeling of real materials (including all sub-lattices, orbitals, and spins), and (iii) the quantum interactions are hidden in the effective one-body (tight-binding) parameters. The aim of this “Inverse Problem for Topological Materials” (IPTM) proposal is to address these issues concretely and practically; (A) by establishing the inverse map for generic few-band lattice models, and then by refining to the most representative crystalline symmetric structures; (B) by establishing the inverse map in real settings through the state-of-the-art modeling of (families of) real materials from the combination of first principles computational results (Density Function Theory and optimized wannierization) and with lattice models systematically derived from group theory; (C) by extracting the contributions of the quantum interactions (electron-electron, electron-phonon, exchange) to the microscopic tight-binding parameters. Aiming at a fundamental understanding of topology in materials, this proposal aims to culminate in the prediction of completely new physics and functionalities, allowing the design of future quantum technology. Consequently this timely action is anticipated to start a new chapter in this active and impactful branch of science.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.
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Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
CB2 1TN Cambridge
United Kingdom