2017/12/20 by Song, Zhigang
#FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1712.07696
Topological materials are of great interest for applications in quantum computing, providing intrinsic robustness against environmental noises. A popular direction is to look for Majorana modes in integrated systems interfaced with superconducting materials. However, is superconductivity necessary for materials to exhibits non-abelian statistics? Here we predict with strong theoretical and numerical evidences that there exist topologically phases in a class of one-dimensional single crystals, which contain large bandgaps and are within experimental reach. Specifically, the nontrivial Zak phases are associated with gapless boundary states, which provides the non-Abelian statistics required for constructing topologically-protected quantum gates, even without superconductivity and magnetic field. Another anomalous feature of these materials is that the electric polarization is quantized and a transverse field induces a longitudinal polarization. This novel material property provides an experimentally-accessible mechanism for braiding the non-Abelian anyons.