Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole normale supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France.
Nature. 2022 Mar;603(7903):824-828. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04519-1. Epub 2022 Mar 30.
Topological electronic flattened bands near or at the Fermi level are a promising route towards unconventional superconductivity and correlated insulating states. However, the related experiments are mostly limited to engineered materials, such as moiré systems. Here we present a catalogue of the naturally occuring three-dimensional stoichiometric materials with flat bands around the Fermi level. We consider 55,206 materials from the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database catalogued using the Topological Quantum Chemistry website, which provides their structural parameters, space group, band structure, density of states and topological characterization. We combine several direct signatures and properties of band flatness with a high-throughput analysis of all crystal structures. In particular, we identify materials hosting line-graph or bipartite sublattices-in either two or three dimensions-that probably lead to flat bands. From this trove of information, we create the Materials Flatband Database website, a powerful search engine for future theoretical and experimental studies. We use the database to extract a curated list of 2,379 high-quality flat-band materials, from which we identify 345 promising candidates that potentially host flat bands with charge centres that are not strongly localized on the atomic sites. We showcase five representative materials and provide a theoretical explanation for the origin of their flat bands close to the Fermi energy using the S-matrix method introduced in a parallel work.
拓扑电子平带在费米能级附近或处处于费米能级是实现非常规超导和关联绝缘态的有前景途径。然而,相关实验大多局限于工程材料,例如莫尔超晶格系统。在这里,我们提供了一份自然存在的具有费米能级附近平坦能带的三维化学计量材料目录。我们考虑了使用拓扑量子化学网站对无机晶体结构数据库中的 55,206 种材料进行编目,这些材料提供了它们的结构参数、空间群、能带结构、态密度和拓扑特征。我们结合了带平坦度的几个直接特征和性质,以及对所有晶体结构的高通量分析。特别是,我们确定了可能导致平带的具有线图或二部子晶格的材料,无论是在二维还是三维中。从这个信息宝库中,我们创建了 Materials Flatband Database 网站,这是一个用于未来理论和实验研究的强大搜索引擎。我们使用数据库提取了 2,379 种高质量平坦能带材料的精选列表,从中我们确定了 345 种有前途的候选材料,这些候选材料可能具有非强局域在原子位置上的电荷中心的平坦能带。我们展示了五种代表性材料,并使用在平行工作中引入的 S 矩阵方法为它们在费米能级附近的平带起源提供了理论解释。