Unraveling materials Berry curvature and Chern numbers from real-time evolution of Bloch states

DOI10.1073/PNAS.1816904116zbMATH Open1416.81213arXiv1809.07439OpenAlexW2890322492WikidataQ62044271 ScholiaQ62044271MaRDI QIDQ5222777FDOQ5222777

Authors: Dongbin Shin, Shunsuke Sato, Hannes Hübener, Umberto de Giovannini, Jeongwoo Kim, Noejung Park, A. Rubio 

Publication date: 3 July 2019

Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Materials can be classified by the topological character of their electronic structure and, in this perspective, global attributes immune to local deformations have been discussed in terms of Berry curvature and Chern numbers. Except for instructional simple models, linear response theories have been ubiquitously employed in calculations of topological properties of real materials. Here we propose a completely different and versatile approach to get the topological characteristics of materials by calculating physical observables from the real-time evolving Bloch states: the cell-averaged current density reveals the anomalous velocities whose integration leads to the conductivity quantum. Results for prototypical cases are shown, including a spin-frozen valley-Hall and a quantum anomalous Hall insulator. The advantage of this method is best illustrated by the example of a quantum spin Hall insulator: the quantized spin Hall conductivity is straightforwardly obtained irrespective of the non-Abelian nature in its Berry curvature. Moreover, the method can be extended to the description of real observables in non-equilibrium states of topological materials.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.07439

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Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Electromagnetic interaction; quantum electrodynamics (81V10) Many-body theory; quantum Hall effect (81V70) Differential geometric methods, including holonomy, Berry and Hannay phases, Aharonov-Bohm effect, etc. in quantum theory (81Q70)

Cited In (3)

• L lines, C points and Chern numbers: understanding band structure topology using polarization fields
• Topological Bloch bands in graphene superlattices
• Topological characterization of chiral models through their long time dynamics

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