Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Theory of Metallic Conduction

Theory of Metallic Conduction

The conduction of free electrons inside a conductor is best described by quantum mechanics. However, a classical model makes predictions close to the results of quantum mechanics. It is called the theory of metallic conduction.
In this theory, Newton's second law of motion is used to determine the acceleration of an electron in the presence of an applied electric field. Then, its velocity is expressed via this acceleration.
An electron moves through the crystal, containing positive ions,...

Phase Diagrams of Ternary Systems

Phase Diagrams of Ternary Systems

Consider a ternary system, which is composed of three components: water (W), ethanoic acid (E), and trichloromethane (T). Here, Ethanoic acid (E) is fully miscible with both water (W) and trichloromethane (T), meaning it can mix entirely with either of them. However, water and trichloromethane have partial miscibility, meaning they can only mix to a certain extent, beyond which two separate phases will form.The phase diagram of a ternary system is represented as an equilateral triangle, where...

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...

Debye–Huckel–Onsager Conductance Equation

Debye–Huckel–Onsager Conductance Equation

The Debye-Hückel-Onsager equation is a cornerstone of physical chemistry, providing a method to determine the molar conductance (Λm) and molar conductance at infinite dilution (Λ°m) for uni-univalent electrolytes.Uni-univalent electrolytes are electrolytes that dissociate in solution to produce one cation with a +1 charge and one anion with a –1 charge per formula unit.This equation addresses two crucial phenomena: the asymmetry effect and the electrophoretic effect. According to this equation,...

Trends in Lattice Energy: Ion Size and Charge

Trends in Lattice Energy: Ion Size and Charge

An ionic compound is stable because of the electrostatic attraction between its positive and negative ions. The lattice energy of a compound is a measure of the strength of this attraction. The lattice energy (ΔHlattice) of an ionic compound is defined as the energy required to separate one mole of the solid into its component gaseous ions. For the ionic solid sodium chloride, the lattice energy is the enthalpy change of the process:

Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition

Phase Transitions: Sublimation and Deposition

Some solids can transition directly into the gaseous state, bypassing the liquid state, via a process known as sublimation. At room temperature and standard pressure, a piece of dry ice (solid CO2) sublimes, appearing to gradually disappear without ever forming any liquid. Snow and ice sublimate at temperatures below the melting point of water, a slow process that may be accelerated by winds and the reduced atmospheric pressures at high altitudes. When solid iodine is warmed, the solid sublimes...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Non-Hermiticity Induced Universal Anomalies in Kondo Conductance.

Physical review letters·2026

Same author

Gate-Tunable Correlated Electronic State in Atomically Thin Single-Crystal VO<sub>2-δ</sub>.

ACS nano·2026

Same author

Altermagnetic Spin Precession and Spin Transistor.

Physical review letters·2026

Same author

[Evaluation of the economic burden of influenza among outpatient and inpatient cases in Wanzhou District, Chongqing].

Zhonghua liu xing bing xue za zhi = Zhonghua liuxingbingxue zazhi·2026

Same author

Altermagnet-Driven Magnon Spin Splitting Nernst Effect.

Physical review letters·2026

Same author

Quantum Hall effect at 0.002 T in graphene.

Nature communications·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 15, 2026

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform

Published on: August 2, 2019

Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in disordered two-dimensional topological insulators.

Zhong Xu¹, L Sheng, R Shen

¹National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China.

Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal

|January 12, 2013

Summary

Disorder drives a metal-insulator transition in quantum spin Hall systems. This transition is a Kosterlitz-Thouless type, characterized by vortex-antivortex pair dynamics and independent of time-reversal symmetry.

More Related Videos

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser

Published on: June 28, 2018

Optimized Fabrication Procedure for High-Quality Graphene-based Moiré Superlattice Devices

Optimized Fabrication Procedure for High-Quality Graphene-based Moiré Superlattice Devices

Published on: July 11, 2025

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 15, 2026

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform

Scalable Quantum Integrated Circuits on Superconducting Two-Dimensional Electron Gas Platform

Published on: August 2, 2019

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser

Experimental Methods for Spin- and Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy Combined with Polarization-Variable Laser

Published on: June 28, 2018

Optimized Fabrication Procedure for High-Quality Graphene-based Moiré Superlattice Devices

Optimized Fabrication Procedure for High-Quality Graphene-based Moiré Superlattice Devices

Published on: July 11, 2025

Area of Science:

Condensed matter physics
Topological materials
Quantum phenomena

Background:

Quantum spin Hall (QSH) systems exhibit unique electronic properties due to strong spin-orbit coupling.
Disorder can significantly alter the electronic behavior of topological materials, potentially driving phase transitions.
Understanding metal-insulator transitions is crucial for characterizing the stability and properties of QSH states.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the nature of the disorder-driven metal-insulator transition in quantum spin Hall systems.
To analyze the role of electron delocalization and critical phenomena in this transition.
To determine the universality class of the observed transition.

Main Methods:

Scaling analysis of the Thouless conductance (g) with sample size (M).
Calculation of the beta function (β = d ln g/d ln M) to characterize the flow of conductance.
Identification of critical disorder strength and transition type based on conductance behavior.

Main Results:

Below a critical disorder strength, conductance remains independent of sample size, indicating critically delocalized states.
The calculated beta function confirms a Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type metal-insulator transition.
The KT-like transition is driven by the binding and unbinding of local current vortex-antivortex pairs.

Conclusions:

The disorder-driven metal-insulator transition in QSH systems is of the Kosterlitz-Thouless type.
This transition is a fundamental characteristic of the quantum spin Hall state.
The observed KT-like transition is robust and does not depend on time-reversal symmetry.