Bulk-boundary-transport correspondence of the second-order topological insulators

The bulk-boundary correspondence of the second-order topological insulator (SOTI) has been well established, but a universal transport signature for open systems is still absent. For a variety of SOTIs induced by applying in-plane magnetic fields in Z2-invariant first-order TIs, rotating this magnetic field features the spin pump mechanism while maintaining the SOTI phase. We demonstrate that, this spin pump can generate quantized pure spin current when tuning the magnetic field strength, which corresponds to the formation of topological corner states characterizing SOTI in two-dimensional (2D) systems. Quantized spin pump is discovered in various 2D and 3D SOTI models evolved from Z2-invariant TIs, which is robust against disorder and universally independent of system parameters including Fermi energy, system size, magnetic field strength, and pumping frequency. These findings suggest that this universal quantized spin pump can characterize the bulk-boundary-transport correspondence of SOTIs. Quantized spin pump can also be realized by combining pseudo spin such as the orbital degree of freedom with the rotating magnetic field, which could be achieved in higher-order photonic or acoustic topological systems. Such a quantized spin pump is promising as an accurate and stable single-spin source.