Recent progress on disorder-induced topological phases

Topological states of matter in disordered systems without translation symmetry have attracted great interest in recent years. These states with topological characters are not only robust against certain disorders, but also can be counterintuitively induced by disorders from a topologically trivial phase in the clean limit. In this review, we summarize the current theoretical and experimental progress on disorder-induced topological phases in both condensed-matter and artificial systems. We first introduce the topological Anderson insulators (TAIs) induced by random disorders and their topological characterizations and experimental realizations. We then discuss various extensions of TAIs with unique localization phenomena in quasiperiodic and non-Hermitian systems. We also review the theoretical and experimental studies on the disorder-induced topology in dynamical and many-body systems, including topological Anderson-Thouless pumps, disordered correlated topological insulators and average-symmetry protected topological orders acting as interacting TAI phases. Finally, we conclude the review by highlighting potential directions for future explorations.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
Published
2026-06-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648x/ae7cca
Primary Topic
Topological Materials and Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Recent progress on disorder-induced topological phases

Dan-Wei Zhang, Ling-Zhi Tang
Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
Topological Materials and Phenomena
article

Recent progress on disorder-induced topological phases

Dan-Wei Zhang, Ling-Zhi Tang
article en

Abstract

Topological states of matter in disordered systems without translation symmetry have attracted great interest in recent years. These states with topological characters are not only robust against certain disorders, but also can be counterintuitively induced by disorders from a topologically trivial phase in the clean limit. In this review, we summarize the current theoretical and experimental progress on disorder-induced topological phases in both condensed-matter and artificial systems. We first introduce the topological Anderson insulators (TAIs) induced by random disorders and their topological characterizations and experimental realizations. We then discuss various extensions of TAIs with unique localization phenomena in quasiperiodic and non-Hermitian systems. We also review the theoretical and experimental studies on the disorder-induced topology in dynamical and many-body systems, including topological Anderson-Thouless pumps, disordered correlated topological insulators and average-symmetry protected topological orders acting as interacting TAI phases. Finally, we conclude the review by highlighting potential directions for future explorations.

Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
South China Normal University (CN), Macao Polytechnic University (MO)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation of Guangdong Province
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Topological Materials and Phenomena
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