Hopper-Like Growth of Higher-Order Topological Insulators

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Hauptverfasser: Tanaka, Yutaro, Zhang, Shuai, Zhang, Tiantian, Murakami, Shuichi
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Tanaka, Yutaro
Zhang, Shuai
Zhang, Tiantian
Murakami, Shuichi
author_facet Tanaka, Yutaro
Zhang, Shuai
Zhang, Tiantian
Murakami, Shuichi
contents Understanding crystal growth and morphology is a fundamental issue in condensed matter physics. While crystal morphology due to the distribution and dynamics of the diffusion field has been intensively studied, how the intrinsic material properties affect crystal morphology remains unclear. In this Letter, we demonstrate that higher-order topological phases can give rise to hollowed crystal morphologies, where the corners advance faster than the central regions of the crystal, through an unconventional mechanism originating from topological electronic states. We quantitatively show this connection by analyzing both the fractal dimension $D_f$ and the fractal dimension of coastlines $D_{f,c}$. When we compare the crystals in the normal insulator and higher-order topological insulator phases with the same $D_{f}$ in the case of relatively rapid crystal growth, the former is in the dendritic shape, while the latter is in the hopper-like shape, quantified by the smaller $D_{f,c}$ in the higher-order topological phase.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_09875
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Hopper-Like Growth of Higher-Order Topological Insulators
Tanaka, Yutaro
Zhang, Shuai
Zhang, Tiantian
Murakami, Shuichi
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
Understanding crystal growth and morphology is a fundamental issue in condensed matter physics. While crystal morphology due to the distribution and dynamics of the diffusion field has been intensively studied, how the intrinsic material properties affect crystal morphology remains unclear. In this Letter, we demonstrate that higher-order topological phases can give rise to hollowed crystal morphologies, where the corners advance faster than the central regions of the crystal, through an unconventional mechanism originating from topological electronic states. We quantitatively show this connection by analyzing both the fractal dimension $D_f$ and the fractal dimension of coastlines $D_{f,c}$. When we compare the crystals in the normal insulator and higher-order topological insulator phases with the same $D_{f}$ in the case of relatively rapid crystal growth, the former is in the dendritic shape, while the latter is in the hopper-like shape, quantified by the smaller $D_{f,c}$ in the higher-order topological phase.
title Hopper-Like Growth of Higher-Order Topological Insulators
topic Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09875