Topological Insulators – Vietnam Art News

In science, the usual order is that experiments reveal something and then theorists explain it afterward, if at all. A classic example is superconductivity. It was first noticed in 1911, but it took theorists nearly 50 years to come up with an explanation, and even that explanation does not apply to every superconducting material. But once in a while, we theorists hit on things all by ourselves. And once in a long while, that something turns out to be technologically useful. Now is one of those times. This is the story of a remarkable theory, hatched in the middle of the past decade, that experimentalists have been pursuing ever since. It is particularly sweet because it is linked to a branch of mathematics—topology—that had until now been mostly beyond any hope of practical application. And the discovery is about as straightforward as it gets: It is possible to produce materials that are insulators on the inside but conductors on the outside. This is heady stuff, for engineers and physicists alike. The mobility, or speed, of the surface electrons in these materials is increasing dramatically every year. Just as important is their intrinsic stability, a quality that suggests they’d be robust… Read full this story

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