History of Topological Insulators

1982

D. J. Thouless et. al. at University of Washington predict currents on the edges of two-dimensional materials in a magnet. Ref: PRL 49, 405 (1982)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Xiao Gang Wen describes a new kind of ordering of electrons called “topological orders”, ultimately resulting in the term “topological insulator”. Ref: Adv. in Phys. 44, 405 (1995)

A collaboration between Shuichi Murakami and Naoto Nagaosa at the University of Tokyo and Shou-Cheng Zhang of Stanford University predict the quantum spin Hall effect, the first conceived phenomenon to cause conduction on interfaces of insulating materials in zero magnetic field. Ref: Science 301, 1348 (2003)
A collaboration between Jairo Sinova and N. A. Sinitsyn at Texas A&M University and four other researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, predicts the spin Hall effect independently of Murakami et. al. Ref: PRL 92, 126603 (2004)

Liang Fu, Charles L. Kane, and E. J. Mele at the University of Pennsylvania generalize the 2D quantum spin Hall states to three dimensions. Ref: PRL 98, 106803 (2007)
J. E. Moore at the University of California, Berkeley and L. Balents from the University of California, Santa Barbara first use the term "topological insulator". Ref: PRB 75, 121306(R) (2007)

A group of researchers under Robert J. Cava at Princeton University observe a 3-D topological insulator with properties that could manifest near room temperature: Bi₂Se₃. Ref: Nature Phys. 5, 398 (2009)

A group of researchers at National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan perform the first nuclear magnetic resonance experiments in Bi₂Se₃. Ref: PRB 86, 075137 (2012)

A group of researchers, including me, under Nicholas J. Curro are the first to probe hyperfine coupling by varying carrier density. Ref:PRB 87, 195202 (2013)