Actinide Topological Insulator Materials with Strong Interaction

ORAL

Abstract

Topological band insulators have recently been discovered in spin-orbit coupled two and three dimensional systems. In this work, we theoretically predict a class of topological Mott insulators where interaction effects play a dominant role. In actinide elements, simple rocksalt compounds formed by Pu and Am lie on the boundary of metal to insulator transition. We show that interaction drives a quantum phase transition to a topological Mott insulator phase with a single Dirac cone on the surface.

*This work is supported by the ARO with grant number W911NF-09-1-0508.

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Authors

  • Xiao Zhang

    • Department of Physics, Stanford University
    • Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4045

  • Hai-Jun Zhang

    • Department of Physics, Stanford University
    • Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4045

  • Claudia Felser

    • Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz

  • Shou-Cheng Zhang

    • Department of Physics, Stanford University
    • Stanford University
    • Department of Physics, McCullough Building, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4045