# The birth of topological insulators

## Abstract

Certain insulators have exotic metallic states on their surfaces. These states are formed by topological effects that also render the electrons travelling on such surfaces insensitive to scattering by impurities. Such topological insulators may provide new routes to generating novel phases and particles, possibly finding uses in technological applications in spintronics and quantum computing.

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## Acknowledgements

I have benefited from conversations about topological insulators with L. Balents, B. A. Bernevig, A. Essin, M. Franz, D. Haldane, Z. Hasan, C. Kane, D.-H. Lee, A. Ludwig, L. Molenkamp, S. Ryu, D. Vanderbilt, A. Vishwanath, X.-G. Wen, C. Xu and S.-C. Zhang. My work on topological insulators is supported by the US National Science Foundation.

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Moore, J. The birth of topological insulators. Nature 464, 194–198 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature08916

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