Researchers at Princeton, Yale, and the University of Zurich have proposed a theory-based approach to characterize a class of metals that possess exotic electronic properties that could help scientists find other, similarly-endowed materials.
Published in the journal Physical Review X, the study described a new class of metals based on their symmetry and a mathematical classification known as a topological number, which is predictive of special electronic properties. Topological materials have drawn intense research interest since the early 2000s culminating in last year's Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to three physicists, including Princeton professor F. Duncan Haldane, for their theoretical discoveries in this area.
"Topological classification is a very general way of looking at the properties of materials," said Lukas Muechler, a Princeton graduate student in the laboratory of Professor Roberto Car and lead author on the article.
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