Quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators host topologically protected dissipationless chiral edge states, the number of which is determined by its Chern number. Up to now, the QAH state has been realized in a few magnetic topological insulators, but usually with a low Chern number. Here, we develop a Dirac-fermion approach which is valuable to understand and design high Chern numbers in various multilayers of layered magnetic topological insulators. Based on the Dirac-fermion approach, we demonstrate how to understand and tune high Chern numbers in ferromagentic MnBi$_{2}$Te$_{4}$ films through the van der Waals (vdW) gap modulation. Further, we also employ the Dirac-fermion approach to understand the experimentally observed high Chern numbers and topological phase transition from the Chern number $C=2$ to $C=1$ in the [3QL-(Bi,Sb)$_{1.76}$Cr$_{0.24}$Te$_{3}$]/[4QL-(Bi,Sb)$_{2}$Te$_{3}$] multilayers. Our work provides a powerful tool to design the QAH states with a high Chern number in layered magnetic topological insulator multilayers.
Chirally stacked $N$-layer graphene is a semimetal with $\pm p^N$ band-touching at two nonequivalent corners in its Brillioun zone. We predict that an off-resonant circularly polarized light (CPL) drives chirally stacked $N$-layer graphene into a Floquet Chern Insulators (FCIs), a.k.a. quantum anomalous Hall insulators, with tunable high Chern number $C_F=\pm N$ and large gaps. A topological phase transition between such a FCI and a valley Hall (VH) insulator with high valley Chern number $C_v=\pm N$ induced by a voltage gate can be engineered by the parameters of the CPL and voltage gate. We …
The high-Chern number phases with a Chern number C>1 have been observed in a recent experiment that performed on the topological insulator (TI) multilayer structures, consisting of the alternating magnetic-doped and undoped TI layers. In this paper, we develop an effective method to determine the Chern numbers in the TI multilayer structures and then make a systematic study on the Chern number phase diagrams that are modulated by the magnetic doping and the middle layer thickness. We point out that in the multilayer structure, the high-C behavior can be attributed to the band inversion mechani…
We use the Dirac cone model to explore the high Chern number (C) phases that are realized in the magnetic-doped topological insulator (TI) multilayer structures by Zhao et al. [Nature 588, 419 (2020)]. The Chern number is calculated by capturing the evolution of the phase boundaries with the parameters and then the Chern number phase diagrams of the TI multilayer structures are obtained. The high-C behavior is attributed to the band inversion of the renormalized Dirac cones, along with which the spin polarization at the Γpoint will get increased. Moreover, another two TI multilayer structures …
Two-dimensional magnetic insulators can be promising hosts for topological magnons. In this study, we show that ABC-stacked honeycomb lattice multilayers with alternating Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) reveal a rich topological magnon phase diagram. Based on our bandstructure and Berry curvature calculations, we demonstrate jumps in the thermal Hall behavior that corroborate with topological phase transitions triggered by adjusting the DMI and interlayer coupling. We connect the phase diagram of generic multilayers to a bilayer and a trilayer system. We find an even-odd effect amongst…
Spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetization switching of ferromagnets with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy has a great potential for the next-generation non-volatile magnetoresistive random-access memory (MRAM). It requires a high-performance pure spin current source with a large spin Hall angle and high electrical conductivity, which can be fabricated by a mass production technique. In this work, we demonstrate ultrahigh efficient and robust SOT magnetization switching in all-sputtered BiSb topological insulator - perpendicularly magnetized Co/Pt multilayers. Despite fabricated by the indus…
The interplay between band topology and magnetism can give rise to exotic states of matter. For example, magnetically doped topological insulators can realize a Chern insulator that exhibits quantized Hall resistance at zero magnetic field. While prior works have focused on ferromagnetic systems, little is known about band topology and its manipulation in antiferromagnets. Here, we report that MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ is a rare platform for realizing a canted-antiferromagnetic (cAFM) Chern insulator with electrical control. We show that the Chern insulator state with Chern number $C = 1$ appears as soon…
We extend the Berry-phase concept of polarization to insulators having a non-zero value of the Chern invariant. The generalization to such Chern insulators requires special care because of the partial occupation of chiral edge states. We show how the integrated bulk current arising from an adiabatic evolution can be related to a difference of bulk polarizations. We also show how the surface charge can be related to the bulk polarization, but only with a knowledge of the wavevector at which the occupancy of the edge state is discontinuous. Furthermore we present numerical calculations on a mode…
One-dimensional (1D) topologically protected states are usually formed at the interface between two-dimensional (2D) materials with different topological invariants. Therefore, 1D chiral interface channels (CICs) can be created at the boundary of two quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with different Chern numbers. Such a QAH junction can function as a chiral edge current distributer at zero magnetic field, but its realization remains challenging. Here, by employing an in-situ mechanical mask, we use molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize QAH insulator junctions, in which two QAH insul…
The real Chern insulator state, featuring nontrivial real Chern number and second-order boundary modes, has been revealed in a few two-dimensional systems. The concept can be extended to three dimensions (3D), but a proper material realization is still lacking. Here, based on first-principles calculations and theoretical analysis, we identify the recently synthesized bulk $γ$-graphyne as a 3D real Chern insulator. Its nontrivial bulk topology leads to topological hinge modes spreading across the 1D edge Brillouin zone. Under compression of the interlayer distance, the system can undergo a topo…
We discuss the magnetic and topological properties of bulk crystals and quasi-two-dimensional thin films formed by stacking intrinsic magnetized topological insulator ( for example Mn(Sb$_{x}$Bi$_{1-x}$)$_2$X$_4$ with X = Se,Te, including MnBi$_2$Te$_4$) septuple layers and topological insulator quintuple layers in arbitrary order. Our analysis makes use of a simplified model that retains only Dirac-cone degrees of freedom on both surfaces of each septuple or quintuple layer. We demonstrate the model's applicability and estimate its parameters by comparing with {\it ab initio } density-functio…
The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state is a two-dimensional topological insulating state that has quantized Hall resistance of h/Ce2 and vanishing longitudinal resistance under zero magnetic field, where C is called the Chern number. The QAH effect has been realized in magnetic topological insulators (TIs) and magic-angle twisted bilayer graphene. Despite considerable experimental efforts, the zero magnetic field QAH effect has so far been realized only for C = 1. Here we used molecular beam epitaxy to fabricate magnetic TI multilayers and realized the QAH effect with tunable Chern number C up…
We show that Floquet engineering with circularly polarized light (CPL) can selectively split the valley degeneracy of a twisted multilayer graphene (TMG), and thus generate a controlled valley-polarized Floquet Chern flat band with tunable large Chern number. It offers a feasible optical way to manipulate the valley degree of freedom in moiré flat bands, and hence opens new opportunities to study the valleytronics of morié flat band systems. We thus expect that many of the valley-related properties of TMG, e.g. orbital ferromagnetism, can be switched by CPL with proper doping. We reveal a Cher…
We propose a different route to time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetals employing multilayer heterostructures comprising ordinary "trivial" insulators and nontrivial insulators with \textit{pairs} of protected Dirac cones on the surface. We consider both the case of weak topological insualtors, where surface Dirac cones are pinned to time-reversal invariant momenta, and of topological crystalline insulators with unpinned surface Dirac cones. For both realizations we explain phenomenologically how the proposed construction leads to the emergence of a Weyl semimetal phase. We further formulate e…
The intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 provides an ideal platform for exploring exotic topological quantum phenomena. Recently, the Chern insulator and axion insulator phases have been realized in few-layer MnBi2Te4 devices at low magnetic field regime. However, the fate of MnBi2Te4 in high magnetic field has never been explored in experiment. In this work, we report transport studies of exfoliated MnBi2Te4 flakes in pulsed magnetic fields up to 61.5 T. In the high-field limit, the Chern insulator phase with Chern number C = -1 evolves into a robust zero Hall resistance…
This is a Reply to a Comment by Tanaka and Machida. We provide some details of the derivation of the effective field theory for integer quantum Hall transitions using the non-Abelian chiral anomaly.
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…
Topological insulators are a novel state of matter that share a common feature: their spectral bands are associated with a nonlocal integer-valued index, commonly manifesting through quantized bulk phenomena and robust boundary effects. In this work, we demonstrate using dimensional reduction that high-order topological insulators are descendants from a chiral semimetal in higher dimensions. Specifically, we analyze the descendants of an ancestor four-dimensional Chern insulator in the limit where it becomes chiral and show their relation to two-dimensional second-order topological insulators.…
While the experimental progress on three dimensional topological insulators is rapid, the development of their two dimensional counterparts has been comparatively slow, despite their technological promise. The main reason is materials challenges of the to date only realizations of two-dimensional topological insulators, in semiconductor quantum wells. Here we identify a two dimensional topological insulator in a material which does not face similar challenges and which is by now most widely available and well-charaterized: graphene. For certain commensurate interlayer twists graphene multilaye…
We study a generic model of a Chern insulator supplemented by a Hubbard interaction in arbitrary even dimension $D$ and demonstrate that the model remains well-defined and nontrivial in the $D \to \infty$ limit. Dynamical mean-field theory is applicable and predicts a phase diagram with a continuum of topologically different phases separating a correlated Mott insulator from the trivial band insulator. We discuss various features, such as the elusive distinction between insulating and semi-metal states, which are unconventional already in the non-interacting case. Topological phases are charac…
Two-dimensional 2-bands insulators breaking time reversal symmetry can present topological phases indexed by a topological invariant called the Chern number. Here we first propose an efficient procedure to determine this topological index. This tool allows in principle to conceive 2-bands Hamiltonians with arbitrary Chern numbers. We apply our methodology to gradually construct a quantum anomalous Hall insulator (Chern insulator) which can be tuned through five topological phases indexed by the Chern numbers {0,+/-1,+/-2}. On a cylindrical finite geometry, such insulator can therefore sustain …
We predict twisted double bilayer graphene to be a versatile platform for the realization of fractional Chern insulators readily targeted by tuning the gate potential and the twist angle. Remarkably, these topologically ordered states of matter, including spin singlet Halperin states and spin polarized states in Chern number $\mathcal C=1$ and $\mathcal{C}= 2$ bands, occur at high temperatures and without the need for an external magnetic field.
We propose a simple realization of the three-dimensional (3D) Weyl semimetal phase, utilizing a multilayer structure, composed of identical thin films of a magnetically-doped 3D topological insulator (TI), separated by ordinary-insulator spacer layers. We show that the phase diagram of this system contains a Weyl semimetal phase of the simplest possible kind, with only two Dirac nodes of opposite chirality, separated in momentum space, in its bandstructure. This particular type of Weyl semimetal has a finite anomalous Hall conductivity, chiral edge states, and occurs as an intermediate phase b…
The effect of a magnetic field on a two-dimensional Chern band insulator is discussed. It is shown that, unlike the trivial insulator, an anomalous Hall insulator with Chern number $C$ becomes a metal when a magnetic field is applied at constant particle density, for any $C>0$. For a time reversal invariant topological insulator with a spin Chern resolved number, $C_\uparrow= - C_\downarrow=C$, the magnetic field induces a spin polarized spin Hall insulator. We consider also the effect of a superlattice potential and extend previous results for the quantization of the Hall conductance of fille…
We study the behavior of several physical properties of the Haldane model as the system undergoes its transition from the normal-insulator to the Chern-insulator phase. We find that the density matrix has exponential decay in both insulating phases, while having a power-law decay, more characteristic of a metallic system, precisely at the phase boundary. The total spread of the maximally-localized Wannier functions is found to diverge in the Chern-insulator phase. However, its gauge-invariant part, related to the localization length of Resta and Sorella, is finite in both insulating phases and…
Chern insulator or quantum anomalous Hall state is a topological state with integer Hall conductivity but in absence of Landau level. It had been well established on various two-dimensional lattices with periodic structure. Here, we report similar Chern insulators can also be realized on the quasicrystal with $5$-fold rotational symmetry. Providing the staggered flux through plaquettes, we propose two types of quasicrystalline Chern insulators. Their topological characterizations are well identified by the robustness of edge states, non-zero real-space Chern number, and quantized conductance. …
We propose characterization of the three-dimensional topological insulator by using the Chern number for the entanglement Hamiltonian (entanglement Chern number). Here we take the extensive spin partition of the system, that pulls out the quantum entanglement between up spin and down spin of the many-body ground state. In three dimensions, the topological insulator phase is described by the section entanglement Chern number, which is the entanglement Chern number for a periodic plane in the Brillouin zone. The section entanglement Chern number serves as an interpolation of the $Z_2$ invariants…
Studies on two-dimensional electron systems in a strong magnetic field first revealed the quantum Hall (QH) effect, a topological state of matter featuring a finite Chern number (C) and chiral edge states. Haldane later theorized that Chern insulators with integer QH effects could appear in lattice models with complex hopping parameters even at zero magnetic field. The ABC-trilayer graphene/hexagonal boron nitride (TLG/hBN) moiré superlattice provides an attractive platform to explore Chern insulators because it features nearly flat moiré minibands with a valley-dependent electrically tunable …
A family of semiconductors called as Chern band insulator are shown to host exciton bands with non-zero topological Chern integers and chiral exciton edge modes. Using a prototypical two-band Chern insulator model, we calculate a cross-correlation function to obtain the exciton bands and their Chern integers. The lowest exciton band acquires Chern integers such as $\pm 1$ and $\pm 2$ in electronic Chern insulator phase. The non-trivial topology can be experimentally observed both by non-local optoelectronic response of exciton edge modes and by a phase shift in the cross-correlation response d…
We develop a minimal theory for the recently observed metal-insulator transition (MIT) in two-dimensional (2D) moiré multilayer transition metal dichalcogenides (mTMD) using Coulomb disorder in the environment as the underlying mechanism. In particular, carrier scattering by random charged impurities leads to an effective 2D MIT approximately controlled by the Ioffe-Regel criterion, which is qualitatively consistent with the experiments. We find the necessary disorder to be around $5$-$10\times10^{10}$cm$^{-2}$ random charged impurities in order to quantitatively explain much, but not all, of …
We consider a family of twisted graphene multilayers consisting of $n$-untwisted chirally stacked layers, e.g., AB, ABC, etc, with a single twist on top of $m$-untwisted {chirally stacked} layers. Upon neglecting both trigonal warping terms for the untwisted layers and the same sublattice hopping between all layers, the resulting models generalize several remarkable features of the chiral model of twisted bilayer graphene (CTBG). In particular, they exhibit a set of magic angles which are identical to those of CTBG at which a pair of bands (i) are perfectly flat, (ii) have Chern numbers in the…
We investigate a new class of topological antiferromagnetic (AF) Chern insulators driven by electronic interactions in two-dimensional systems without inversion symmetry. Despite the absence of a net magnetization, AF Chern insulators (AFCI) possess a nonzero Chern number $C$ and exhibit the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE). Their existence is guaranteed by the bifurcation of the boundary line of Weyl points between a quantum spin Hall insulator and a topologically trivial phase with the emergence of AF long-range order. As a concrete example, we study the phase structure of the honeycomb …
Chern insulator is a building block of many topological quantum matters, ranging from quantum spin Hall insulators to fractional Chern insulators. Here, we discuss a new type of insulator, which consists of two half filled ordinary Chern insulators. On the one hand, the bulk energy spectrum is obtained from folding that of either Chern insulator. Such folding gives rise to a nodal boundary of the Brillouin zone, at which the band crossing is protected by the symmetries of the two-dimensional lattice that is invariant under combined transformations in the spatial and the spin space. It also pro…
The Chern insulator displays a quantized Hall effect without Landau levels. In a landmark paper in 1988, Haldane showed that a Chern insulator could be realized through complex next-nearest-neighbor hopping in a honeycomb lattice. Despite its profound impact on the field of topological physics and recent implementation in cold-atom experiments, the Haldane model has remained elusive in solid-state materials. Here, we report the experimental realization of a Haldane Chern insulator in AB-stacked MoTe2/WSe2 moiré bilayers, which form a honeycomb moiré lattice with two sublattices residing in dif…
We study the edge spectrum of twisted sheets of single layer and bilayer graphene in cases where the continuum model predicts a valley Chern insulator -- an insulating state in which the occupied moiré mini-bands from each valley have a net Chern number, but both valleys together have no net Chern number, as required by time reversal symmetry. In a simple picture, such a state might be expected to have chiral valley polarized counter-propagating edge states. We present results from exact diagonalization of the tight-binding model of commensurate structures in the ribbon geometry. We find that …
Fractional Chern insulators in alternating twisted multilayer MoTe$_{2}$
Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学）；Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center, Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学武汉国家高能磁场中心）；Hubei Fundamental Research Center for Physics（湖北省物理基础研究中心）
A scenario of non-Hermitian bulk--boundary correspondence proposed for one-dimensional topological insulators is adapted to a non-Hermitian Chern insulator to examine its applicability to two-dimensional systems. This scenario employs bulk geometry under a modified periodic boundary condition and boundary geometry under an open boundary condition. The bulk geometry is used to define a topological number, whereas the boundary geometry is used to observe the presence or absence of a topological boundary state. It is demonstrated that the bulk--boundary correspondence holds in a two-dimensional C…
A non-Hermitian Chern insulator with gain/loss-type non-Hermiticity shows a peculiar gap closing; when a nontrivial Chern insulator phase changes to a gapless phase, conduction and valence bands are combined into one band owing to destabilization of chiral edge states. A previous recipe of non-Hermitian bulk-boundary correspondence is insufficient for this system since such a gap closing is beyond its scope. Here, we revise the recipe by taking the peculiar gap closing into account and apply it to the non-Hermitian Chern insulator. We demonstrate that the bulk-boundary correspondence holds in …
A non-Hermitian extension of a Chern insulator and its bulk-boundary correspondence are investigated. It is shown that in addition to the robust chiral edge states that reflect the nontrivial topology of the bulk (nonzero Chern number), anomalous helical edge states localized only at one edge can appear, which are unique to the non-Hermitian Chern insulator.
We propose a Chern insulator in a two-dimensional electron system with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, ferromagnetism, and spin-dependent effective mass. The analytically-obtained topological phase diagrams show the topological phase transitions induced by tuning the magnetization orientation with the Chern number varying between $1,0,-1$. The magnetization orientation tuning shown here is a more practical way of triggering the topological phase transitions than manipulating the exchange coupling that is no longer tunable after the fabrication of the system. The analytic results are confirmed…
Controlling light propagation using artificial photonic crystals and electromagnetic metamaterials is an important topic in the vibrant field of photonics. Notably, chiral edge states on the surface or at the interface of photonic Chern insulators can be used to make reflection-free waveguides. Here, by both theoretical analysis and electromagnetic simulations, we demonstrate that gyromagnetic hyperbolic metamaterials (GHM) are photonic Chern insulators with superior properties. As a novel mechanism, the simultaneous occurrence of the hyperbolic and gyromagnetic effects in these metamaterials …
