Fate of interaction-driven topological insulators under disorder

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Jing Wang - , University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Tianjin University (Author)
  • Carmine Ortix - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Utrecht University (Author)
  • Jeroen Van Den Brink - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Dmitry V. Efremov - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)

Abstract

We analyze the effect of disorder on the weak-coupling instabilities of a quadratic band crossing point (QBCP) in two-dimensional Fermi systems, which, in the clean limit, display interaction-driven topological insulating phases. In the framework of a renormalization group procedure, which treats fermionic interactions and disorder on the same footing, we test all possible instabilities and identify the corresponding ordered phases in the presence of disorder for both single-valley and two-valley QBCP systems. We find that disorder generally suppresses the critical temperature at which the interaction-driven topologically nontrivial order sets in. Strong disorder can also drive a topological phase transition into a topologically trivial insulating state.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number201104
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume96
Issue number20
Publication statusPublished - 8 Nov 2017
Peer-reviewedYes