Colloquia

Topological insulators are materials that have a bulk band gap like an ordinary insulator but support protected conducting states on their edge or surface. These edge/surface states are predicted to have special properties that could be useful for applications ranging from spintronics to quantum computing. In this talk, I will explain the nontrivial band topology of these materials using the Berry phase concept, review current progress on material prediction and realization, and discuss some of the applications in surface catalysis and electronics.