Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Thousands of exotic ‘topological’ materials discovered through sweeping search

Haul thrills physicists, who previously knew of just a few hundred of these peculiar materials.
  1. Elizabeth Gibney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

The already buzzing field of topological physics could be about to explode. For the first time, researchers have systematically scoured through entire databases of materials in search of ones that harbour topological states — exotic phases of matter that have fascinated physicists for a decade. The results show that thousands of known materials probably have topological properties — and perhaps up to 24% of materials in all. Previously, researchers knew of just a few hundred topological materials, and only around a dozen have been studied in detail.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 560, 151-152 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-05913-4

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 17 August 2018: An earlier version of this article said that the properties of a topological insulator were first seen experimentally in bismuth antimony in 2008. In fact, the property was first observed in mercury telluride in 2007. The text has been amended to reflect this.

References

  1. Zhang, T. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.08756 (2018).

  2. Vergniory, M. G., Elcoro, L., Felser, C., Bernevig, B. A. & Wang, Z. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.10271 (2018).

  3. Tang, F., Po, H. C., Vishwanath, A. & Wan, X. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.09744 (2018).

  4. König, M. et al. Science 318, 766–770 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Hsieh, D. et al. Nature 452, 970–974 (2008)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Bradlyn, B. et al. Nature 547, 298–305 (2017)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Po, H. C., Vishwanath, A. & Watanabe, H. Nature Commun. 8, 50 (2017)

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Watanabe, H., Po, H. C. & Vishwanath, A. Sci. Adv. 4, eaat8685 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links