Topological-metal nanostructures

• Applicant: Dr. Maxim Breitkreiz
• Subject Area: Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2019 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 418688556

Topological metals are characterized by the presence of topologically protected band-touching points, which resemble the dispersion of elementary Weyl Fermions, whereby in topological metals the dispersion can assume variously modified forms. The condensed-matter realization of the chiral anomaly, which is associated with these Weyl Fermions, allows to address fundamental physics problems; at the same time, peculiar transport phenomena that have been observed experimentally make topological metals a promising class of materials for the next generation of technological applications. On the theoretical-physics side we meet new challenges, in great part related to the more or less direct signatures of the chiral anomaly. A particular research field where the chiral anomaly shows an interesting facet is the research on topological metals of nano and mesoscopic size. Here we encounter questions concerned with the highly nontrivial response of the chiral anomaly to its spatial confinement. Many of the previously used theoretical models to understand condensed matter are based on spatially infinite lattices and can capture only a part of transport phenomena of topological metals. The aim of this project is to extend theoretical models of topological metals to spatially confined systems. In particular, I will focus on developing specific numerical and analytical tools to calculate the response to electromagnetic fields, accounting for the chiral anomaly and other relevant quantum effects, as well as the effect of spatial confinement to nontrivial geometries and the effect of superconducting proximity. This will allow to design and explore the transport behaviour of topological-metal based nanostructures and heterostructures including superconducting elements to explain and predict novel transport phenomena.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants