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Observation of spin-momentum locked surface states in amorphous Bi2Se3

Amorphous solids are extraordinarily disordered materials that are well integrated in technologies such as DVDs, memories or solar cells. However, no amorphous solid has been observed to display topological phases, which are states of matter between a metal and an insulator remarkably inmune to disorder. In this work, transport and photoemission experiments at the university of California at Berkeley, guided by the theory developed by A. G. Grushin and his team at Institut Néel, indicate that amorphous Bismuth Selenide can be the first amorphous topological solid. This work opens up a the search for new materials that are both amorphous and topological, of high technological interest.