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Various probes of Dirac matter: from graphene to topological insulators

Graphene, the atomic-thin layer of carbon atoms, was first isolated on an insulating substrate in 2004 by two groups in Manchester University [1, 2] and Columbia [3]. Those milestone experiments established the Dirac nature of the charge carriers in graphene. The same year, C.L. Kane and E.G. Mele predicted that intrinsic spin-orbit coupling in graphene, if strong enough, would lead to a novel state of electronic matter called the Quantum Spin Hall (QSH) state [4, 5]. The QSH state is characterized by conducting gapless edge states circulating around an insulating bulk. Those edge states are protected from moderate disorder and interactions by a new topological invariant of the Z_2 nature. While the strength of spin-orbit coupling is too weak in graphene, it was soon predicted [6] and verified by transport experiments [7, 8] that the QSH state is realized in HgTe/CdTe quantum wells. In this manuscript, I will summarize some selected aspects of this huge field of research focused on Dirac matter including graphene and topological insulators. By Dirac matter, we have in mind various systems whose excitations obey a relativistic Dirac-like equation instead of the non relativistic Schrodinger equation. This report is mainly focused on the 2D topological insulators using graphene as a guideline. In chapter 1, the semimetallic character of graphene is derived and the symmetry protection of the Dirac points is discussed while chapters 2 and 3 are devoted to Chern insulators and QSH insulators respectively.