Topological insulators (TIs) are a new quantum state of matter discovered in recent years. They are beyond the spontaneous symmetry-breaking description by Landau and are instead characterized by topological invariants, and described by topological field theory. Their topological nature is similar to the quantum Hall effect, a major discovery of condensed-matter physics in the 1980s (Klaus von Klitzing, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1985). The manifestation of the topological effect is the existence of robust gapless surface states inside the bulk energy gap. The topological surface states exhibit Dirac-cone-like energy dispersion with strong spin-momentum locking. Potential future applications cover areas such as spintronics, thermoelectrics, quantum computing and beyond.It is remarkable that TIs have been realized in many common materials, without the requirement of extreme conditions such as high magnetic field and low temperature. The first TI was predicted in 2006 and experimentally realized in 2007 in HgTe quantum wells. Soon afterwards, three traditionally well-known binary chalcogenides, Bi 2 Se 3 , Bi 2 Te 3 and Sb 2 Te 3 , were predicted and observed to be TIs with a large bulk gap and a metallic surface state consisting of a single Dirac cone. The discovery of these topological materials opened up the exciting field of topological insulators. Extensive experimental and theoretical efforts are devoted to synthesizing and optimizing samples, characterizing the topological states by surface sensitive spectroscopy, transport measurements, device fabrications, and searching for new material candidates.The field of TIs is now expanding at a rapid pace in the communities of physics, chemistry and materials science. In this Focus Issue, we intend to present a highquality snapshot of the materials and applications aspect of this field.We present ten Review papers from both experiment and theory aspects. Five experimental papers [1][2][3][4][5] We present ten Letters that cover various aspects, ranging from ARPES, transport measurement and devices, thin film growth to first-principles simulations and fundamental theory. Letters on ARPES [11][12][13][14] [18] shows the dependence of edge state dispersion on edge geometry of graphene. Last but not the least, two papers on phenomenological models [19,20] report the maximally localized flat-band Hamiltonians and the spectra flow for Aharonov-Bohm rings, respectively.We hope that this Focus Issue will be helpful for your research and stimulate more activity in the exciting field of topological insulators.