Axion is a hypothetical elementary particle which was initially postulated to solve the charge conjugation-parity problem in particle physics. Interestingly, the axion state has emerged in effective theory of topological insulators and has attracted extensive attention in condensed matter physics. Time-reversal or inversion symmetry constrains the axion field $θ$ to be quantized. When both the time-reversal and inversion symmetries are broken by, say, an antiferromagnetic order, the axion field $θ$ could become unquantized and dynamical along with magnetic fluctuations, which is termed the dynamical axion field. Here, we reveal that a wide class of topological-insulator-based dynamical axion states could be distinguished from the normal-insulator-based ones by a hidden quantity derived from the pseudospin Chern number. Motivated by recent research on MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$-family materials, we further show that such topological-insulator-based dynamical axion states can be hopefully achieved in MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$-based heterostructures, which should greatly facilitate the study of axion electrodynamics in condensed matter physics.
Igniting interface magnetic ordering of magnetic topological insulators by building a van der Waals heterostructure can help to reveal novel quantum states and design functional devices. Here, we observe an interesting exchange bias effect, indicating successful interfacial magnetic coupling, in CrI3/MnBi2Te4 ferromagnetic insulator/antiferromagnetic topological insulator (FMI/AFM-TI) heterostructure devices. The devices originally exhibit a negative exchange bias field, which decays with increasing temperature and is unaffected by the back-gate voltage. When we change the device configuration…
The pseudospin quantum degree of freedom is one of the most remarkable properties of graphene that distinguishes it from ordinary two-dimensional metals and semiconductors. Pseudospin quantum interference leads to weak antilocalization (WAL) and is influenced strongly by point defects and thermal perturbations that break chirality and destroy phase coherence. Preserving and manipulating quantum transport properties up to room temperature is key to realizing practical pseudospin-based graphene devices. Here we report fabrication and transport characterization of graphene field-effect devices on…
Coexistence of Superconductivity and Antiferromagnetism in Topological Magnet MnBi2Te4 Films
The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Paul Scherrer Institute（保罗谢尔研究所）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）；National High Magnetic Field Laboratory（国家高磁场实验室）
A planar quantum-well device made of a gapless graphene nanoribbon with edges in contact with gapped graphene sheets is examined. The size-quantization spectrum of charge carriers in an asymmetric quantum well is shown to exhibit a pseudospin splitting. Interface states of a new type arise from the crossing of dispersion curves of gapless and gapped graphene materials. The exciton spectrum is calculated for a planar graphene quantum well. The effect of an external electric field on the exciton spectrum is analyzed.
Combining magnetism and nontrivial band topology gives rise to quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators and exotic quantum phases such as the QAH effect where current flows without dissipation along quantized edge states. Inducing magnetic order in topological insulators via proximity to a magnetic material offers a promising pathway towards achieving QAH effect at high temperature for lossless transport applications. One promising architecture involves a sandwich structure comprising two single layers of MnBi2Te4 (a 2D ferromagnetic insulator) with ultra-thin Bi2Te3 in the middle, and is predi…
Chern insulators are two-dimensional magnetic topological materials that conduct electricity along their edges via the one-dimensional chiral modes. The number of these modes is a topological invariant called the first Chern number $C$, that defines the quantized Hall conductance as $S_{xy}= C e^2/h$. Increasing $C$ is pivotal for the realization of low-power-consumption topological electronics, but there has been no clear-cut solution of this problem so far, with the majority of existing Chern insulators showing $C=1$. Here, by using state-of-the-art theoretical methods, we propose an efficie…
The search for materials to support the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect (QAHE) have recently centered on intrinsic magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) including MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ or heterostructures made up of MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ and Bi$_2$Te$_3$. While MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ is itself a MTI, most recent ARPES experiments indicate that the surface states on this material lack the mass gap that is expected from the magnetism-induced time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB), with the absence of this mass gap likely due to surface magnetic disorder. Here, utilizing small-spot ARPES scanned across the surfaces of …
Recently, the search for an axion insulator state in the ferromagnet-3D topological insulator (TI) heterostructure and $\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}$ has attracted intensive interest. However, its detection remains difficult in experiments. We systematically investigate the disorder-induced phase transition of the axion insulator state in a 3D TI with antiparallel magnetization alignment surfaces. It is found that there exists a 2D disorder-induced phase transition which shares the same universality class with the quantum Hall plateau to plateau transition. Then, we provide a phenomenological theory wh…
Monolayer valley semiconductors, such as tungsten diselenide (WSe$_2$), possess valley pseudospin degrees of freedom that are optically addressable but degenerate in energy. Lifting the energy degeneracy by breaking time-reversal symmetry is vital for valley manipulation. This has been realized by directly applying magnetic fields or via pseudo-magnetic fields generated by intense circularly polarized optical pulses. However, sweeping large magnetic fields is impractical for devices, and the pseudo-magnetic fields are only effective in the presence of ultrafast laser pulses. The recent rise of…
Effect of spin-dependent tunneling and intervalley scattering in magnetic-semiconductor van der Waals heterostructures on exciton and trion polarization
Axion, first postulated as a hypothetical particle in high-energy physics, is now extended to describe a novel topological magnetoelectric effect derived from the Chern-Simons theory in condensed matter systems. The recent discovered intrinsic magnetic topological insulators MnBi2Te4 and its derivatives have attracted great attention because of their potential as a material platform to realize such a quantized axion field. Since the magnetic exchange gap can bring the half-quantized anomalous Hall effect at the surface, an axion insulator manifests as quantum anomalous Hall and zero Hall plate…
We propose to use ferromagnetic insulator MnBi2Se4/Bi2Se3/antiferromagnetic insulator Mn2Bi2Se5 heterostructures for the realization of the axion insulator state. Importantly, the axion insulator state in such heterostructures only depends on the magnetization of the ferromagnetic insulator and hence can be observed in a wide range of external magnetic field. Using density functional calculations and model Hamiltonian simulations, we find that the top and bottom surfaces have opposite half-quantum Hall conductance, with a sizable global spin gap of 5.1 meV opened for the topological surface st…
We report magnetotransport measurements in the NbN/ magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 (MBT)/ NbN junction at low temperature. At 10 mK, the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of the junction shows a tunneling behavior, indicating the existence of interfacial potential barriers within the heterostructure. Under an out of plane perpendicular magnetic field, a transition from negative to positive magnetoresistance (MR) is found when increasing the bias voltage. A proximity-induced superconducting gap is estimated to be 0.1meV by a pair of differential resistance dips. Moreover, the in…
We derive an effective field theory model for magnetic topological insulators and predict that a magnetic electronic gap persists on the surface for temperatures above the ordering temperature of the bulk. Our analysis also applies to interfaces of heterostructures consisting of a ferromagnetic and a topological insulator. In order to make quantitative predictions for MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, and for EuS-Bi$_2$Se$_3$ heterostructures, we combine the effective field theory method with density functional theory and Monte Carlo simulations. For MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ we predict an upwards Néel temperature shift a…
Driven-dissipative superconductivity in moiré heterostructure without attraction
Joint Quantum Institute, University of Maryland（马里兰大学联合量子研究所）；ICFO-Institut de Ciencies Fotoniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology（巴塞罗那科技大学光子科学研究所）；Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zürich（苏黎世联邦理工学院量子电子学研究所）；Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne（科隆大学理论物理研究所）
Axion Insulator State in Hundred-Nanometer-Thick Magnetic Topological Insulator Sandwich Heterostructures
Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学物理系）；Department of Physics, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology（香港科技大学物理系）；Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学材料研究所）
Establishing the conditions under which orbital, spin and lattice-pseudospin degrees of freedom are mutually coupled in realistic nonequilibrium conditions is a major goal in the emergent field of graphene spintronics. Here, we use linear-response theory to obtain a unified microscopic description of spin dynamics and coupled spin-charge transport in graphene with an interface-induced Bychkov-Rashba effect. Our method makes use of an SO(5) extension of the familiar inverse-diffuson approach to obtain a quantum kinetic equation for the single-particle density matrix that treats spin and pseudos…
We study the properties of a thin film of topological insulator material. We treat the coupling between helical states at opposite surfaces of the film in the properly-adapted tunneling approximation, and show that the tunneling matrix element oscillates as function of both the film thickness and the momentum in the plane of the film for Bi$_2$Se$_3$ and Bi$_2$Te$_3$. As a result, while the magnitude of the matrix element at the center of the surface Brillouin Zone gives the gap in the energy spectrum, the sign of the matrix element uniquely determines the topological properties of the film, a…
We explore higher order topological superconductivity in an artificial Dirac material with intrinsic spin-orbit coupling, which is a doped $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological insulator in the normal state. A mechanism for superconductivity due to repulsive interactions -- $\mathit{pseudospin}$ $\mathit{pairing}$ -- has recently been shown to naturally result in higher-order topology in Dirac systems past a minimum chemical potential \cite{Li2021}. Here we apply this theory through microscopic modeling of a superlattice potential imposed on an inversion symmetric hole-doped semiconductor heterostructure…
