A study has been published in Nature Communications that identifies an unusual regime of quantum oscillations in a three-dimensional topological insulator. The results show that, when subjected to temperatures near absolute zero and extreme magnetic fields, electrons in the material zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe₅) exhibit behavior that deviates from the pattern predicted by conventional theory.

The study, led by researchers from the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the University of Washington, among other U.S. institutions, combines electrical transport experiments conducted in magnetic fields of up to 60 tesla and at temperatures around 0.7 kelvin (−272.45 °C) with detailed theoretical modeling.

“This work expands our understanding of electron transport in exotic phases of matter and suggests that topological insulators support the transport of not only electric charge, but also another fundamental degree of freedom: electron spin,” says Julio Larrea Jiménez, a professor at USP’s Physics Institute (IF) and co-founder and director of the Laboratory for Quantum Matter under Extreme Conditions (LQMEC).