Symmetry-protected topological polarons

DOI

<p>Emergent quasiparticles in solids often exhibit unique topological properties as a result of the complex interplay between charge, orbital, spin and lattice degrees of freedom. Among these quasiparticles, the polaron occupies a special place as the first known manifestation of the interaction between a fermion and a boson field. While polarons have been investigated for almost a century, whether these quasiparticles exhibit topological properties and why remain open questions. Here, we establish the universal symmetry principles governing the topology of polar textures in large polarons. Using a group-theoretic analysis, we identify four distinct classes of polar textures in time-reversal-invariant systems, and we show that they carry integer topological charges. We validate this classification by performing state-of-the-art first-principles calculations of materials representative of each class. For these materials, we compute the fingerprints of polaron topology in Huang diffuse scattering, and propose ultrafast electron and X-ray scattering experiments to detect these quasiparticles.</p> <p>This archive contains the data necessary to reproduce the results of the "Symmetry-protected topological polarons" article by Kaifa Luo, Jon Lafuente-Bartolome, and Feliciano Giustino.</p>

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.24435/materialscloud:y1-js
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2514647123
Related Identifier https://archive.materialscloud.org/communities/mcarchive
Related Identifier https://doi.org/10.24435/materialscloud:tn-rd
Metadata Access https://archive.materialscloud.org/oai2d?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai:materialscloud.org:esngz-8bs80
Provenance
Creator Luo, Kaifa; Lafuente-Bartolome, Jon; Giustino, Feliciano
Publisher Materials Cloud
Contributor Luo, Kaifa; Giustino, Feliciano
Publication Year 2026
Rights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess; Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode
OpenAccess true
Contact archive(at)materialscloud.org
Representation
Language English
Resource Type info:eu-repo/semantics/other
Format application/gzip; text/markdown
Discipline Materials Science and Engineering