Researchers at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru have discovered a new way to detect hidden quantum properties in exotic materials known as topological materials using the spectral function.

• Published in Physical Review B, this discovery could significantly impact how scientists explore and utilize topological materials in next-gen tech.

About Topological Materials

• Topological materials, like topological insulators and topological superconductors, have unusual electronic properties that make them important for developing future technologies such as:Quantum computers
  • Fault-tolerant electronics
  • Energy-efficient systems

• These materials have special internal structures governed by topology, a branch of mathematics that looks at properties that don’t change even when an object is stretched or bent.

Challenge

Although topological materials are promising, it’s been hard to identify and study their internal topological features, which are often hidden and subtle.

How spectral function has helped in understanding these hidden topological properties?

• The RRI team—led by Professor Dibyendu Roy and PhD scholar Kiran Babasaheb Estake—found that a mathematical tool called the spectral function can reveal these hidden topological properties.
  • The spectral function has long been used to study how electrons behave in materials.
  • The researchers showed that this function also carries “fingerprints” of a material’s topology.
  • Specifically, by analyzing the momentum-space spectral function (SPSF), they could identify topological invariants like winding numbers and Chern numbers, which describe the quantum behavior of particles in different dimensions.
    

Significance

• The study reveals that the spectral function—previously thought to be just about electron behavior—can now be used to detect the deep, hidden quantum structure of materials. This opens new doors for materials science and quantum technology.