Recently, the research group led by Associate Professor Wang Rui from the Research Institute of Structure and Function and the Department of Physics of the School of Physics, Chongqing University, wrote a perspective in collaboration with the research group led by Associate Professor Xu Hu from the Department of Physics of Southern University of Science and Technology, as invited by Editor in Chief Prof. Gregory Scholes of The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (one of the 82 nature exponential journals in the world). The perspective is about the research progress and frontier dynamics of topology quantum states in magnetic oxidation. Chongqing University is the first author organization and the corresponding organization. Associate Professor Wang Rui of the School of Physics and Associate Professor Xu Hu of the Southern University of Science and Technology are corresponding coauthors.
The introduction of topological quantum materials provides an effective solution to the development dilemma of electronic industry system based on traditional semiconductor theory that aims to eliminate the energy loss caused by current. Compared with the ordinary current scattering from the lattice and impurities, the surface current realized by topological quantum material is like the highway of electron transmission, which has great advantages in transmission efficiency and stability. Therefore, the exploration of topological quantum states is an important research topic in the fields of condensed matter physics and material science, which is considered to be an important application in the next generation of electronic components.
Depending on whether the system has time inversion symmetry, topological quantum materials can be divided into magnetic topological materials and non-magnetic topological materials. Compared with nonmagnetic topological quantum materials, magnetic topological quantum materials are more important. On the one hand, the coexistence of intrinsic magnetization and non-ordinary electronic states in magnetic topological quantum materials will have a broad application prospect in spintronics. On the other hand, the interaction between different spin arrangements and symmetries of magnetic topological quantum materials provides an ideal platform for studying the topological order of symmetry protection. Because of the complexity of the magnetic ground state and the diversity of the magnetic space group, the research progress of magnetic topological quantum materials is relatively slow. In addition, it is very difficult to observe the quantum state of magnetic topology. As such, this prospective reviewed the important progress in the theoretical design and exploration of magnetic topological oxides such as topological semimetals and quantum anomalous Hall insulators in recent years, and systematically discussed the novel physical phenomena and mechanisms in magnetic topological oxides. Most of these materials have high Curie temperature and strong oxidation resistance, and can be widely used in industrial fields, and will stimulate the interest of experimental researchers to a large extent. More importantly, there are many topological quantum states in magnetic topological oxides. Therefore, further research on magnetic topological oxides is expected to be carried out in an effort to find more novel physical phenomena.
It is reported that in the past two years, the research group led by Associate Professor Wang Rui and the research group led by Associate Professor Xu Hu of South University of Science and Technology have carried out in-depth cooperation, and made a series of important progress in the theoretical design of topological quantum materials and the exploration of topological quantum new state of matter. The research has drawn extensive attention from peers at home and abroad. For example, they have improved the topological classification of magnetic systems with central symmetry, and proposed and implemented even number ferromagnetic outer half metal and three-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall insulator [Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 057205 (2019); Phys. Rev. B 98, 081101(R)(2018);Phys. Rev. B 101, 161108 (R)(2020)]; the research group was the first in the world to carry out theoretical research on topological phonon states in solids. For the first time that the non-traditional triangular Weyl complex which is different from that excited by the traditional wail quasiparticle has been proposed in the condensed state system [Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 105303 (2020); Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 065501(2019);Nano Lett. 18, 7755 (2018)]. The research efforts are of great significance for the experimental observation of topological quantum states and the further design of topological quantum devices.
Link of the paper: Rui Wang,* Yuanjun Jin, Bowen Xia, and Hu Xu*, Topological Quantum States in Magnetic Oxides, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 4036−4042.https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03467
The perspective and related research have been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Theoretical Physics Platform of Chongqing University, the Reserved Top-notch Talent Program of Chongqing University, the Top-notch Young Talent Program of Chongqing and the Science and Engineering Computing Center of Southern University of Science and Technology.
Appendix:
Perspectives of JPC Letters are brief reports highlighting a specific topic of interest to physical chemists and chemical physicists. These reports are not intended to be a comprehensive look at the field, but rather to place a particular research finding into broader context. Perspectives are among the most highly cited of publications that appear in JPC Letters. They are catalogued on the journal website and highlighted through videos and on JPC's Facebook page.