Transport evidence of surface states in magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, IFW Dresden(德累斯顿铁电研究所);Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, CEA, Grenoble-INP, Spintec(格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学);Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat(维尔茨堡-德累斯顿卓越集群ct.qmat);CNRS, Laboratoire National des Champs Magnétiques Intenses, Université Grenoble-Alpes, Université Toulouse 3, INSA-Toulouse, EMFL(法国国家强磁场实验室)
Michael Wissmann, Romain Giraud, Börge Mehlhorn, Maxime Leroux, Mathieu Pierre, Michel Goiran, Walter Escoffier, Bernd Büchner, Anna Isaeva, Joseph Dufouleur, Louis Veyrat
Magnetic topological insulators can host chiral 1D edge channels at zero magnetic field, when a magnetic gap opens at the Dirac point in the band structure of 2D topological surface states, leading to the quantum anomalous Hall effect in ultra-thin nanostructures. For thicker nanostructures, quantization is severely reduced by the co-existence of edge states with other quasi-particles, usually considered as bulk states. Yet, surface states also exist above the magnetic gap, but it remains difficult to identify electronic subbands by electrical measurements due to strong disorder. Here we unveil surface states in MnBi2Te4 nanostructures, using magneto-transport in very-high magnetic fields up to 55 T, giving evidence of Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillations above 40 T. A detailed analysis confirms the 2D nature of these quantum oscillations, thus establishing an alternative method to photoemission spectroscopy for the study of topological surface states in magnetic topological insulators, using Landau level spectroscopy.
The lifetime of electrons on edge states of a two-dimensional topological insulator against the background of an allowed two-dimensional band has been determined. It has been shown that this time in the case of scattering on Coulomb impurities can be significantly larger than the mean free time of two-dimensional electrons. As a result, the conductivity of the metallic two-dimensional topological insulator strip can be determined primarily by edge states.
Eigenenergies of a non-Hermitian system without parity-time symmetry are complex in general. Here, we show that the chiral boundary states of higher-dimensional (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) non-Hermitian topological insulators without parity-time symmetry can be Hermitian with real eigenenergies under certain conditions. Our approach allows one to construct Hermitian chiral edge and hinge states from non-Hermitian two-dimensional Chern insulators and three-dimensional second-order topological insulators, respectively. Such Hermitian chiral boundary channels have perfect transmission…
Lecture-notes: introducing and discussing basics on axion electrodynamics with application in the calculation of the images generated by an electric (or a magnetic) charge located close to an interface ordinary insulator-topological insulator
We study spin conductivity of the surface states in a thin film of a topological insulator with Kubo formulas. Hybridization between the different sides of the film opens a gap at the Dirac point. We found that in the gapped region spin conductivity remains finite. In the gapless region near the band gap spin conductivity is enhanced. These findings make a thin film of a topological insulator as a promising material for spintronic applications.
We study a non-Hermitian non-Abelian topological insulator preserving $PT$ symmetry, where the non-Hermitian term represents nonreciprocal hoppings. As it increases, a spontaneous $PT$ symmetry breaking transition occurs in the perfect-flat band model from a real-line-gap topological insulator into an imaginary-line-gap topological insulator. By introducing a band bending term, we realize two phase transitions, where a metallic phase emerges between the above two topological insulator phases. We discuss an electric-circuit realization of non-Hermitian non-Abelian topological insulators. We fin…
Topological phases, including the conventional first-order and higher-order topological insulators and semimetals, have emerged as a thriving topic in the fields of condensed-matter physics and material science. Usually, a topological insulator is characterized by a fixed order topological invariant and exhibits associated bulk-boundary correspondence. Here, we realize a new type of topological insulator in a bilayer phononic crystal, which hosts simultaneously the first-order and second-order topologies, referred here as the hybrid-order topological insulator. The one-dimensional gapless heli…
We consider weak topological insulators with a twofold rotation symmetry around the dark direction, and show that these systems can be endowed with the topological crystalline structure of a higher-order topological insulator protected by rotation symmetry. These hybrid-order weak topological insulators display surface Dirac cones on all surfaces. Translational symmetry breaking perturbations gap the Dirac cones on the side surfaces leaving anomalous helical hinge modes behind. We also prove that the existence of this topological phase comes about due to a hidden crystalline topological invari…
Notion of square-root topological insulators have been recently generalized to higher-order topological insulators. In two-dimensional square-root higher-order topological insulators, emergence of in-gap corner states are inherited from the squared Hamiltonian which hosts higher-order topology. In this paper, we propose that the martini lattice model serves as a concrete example of higher-order topological insulators. Furthermore, we also propose a suquare-root higher-order topological insulator based on the martini model. Specifically, we propose that the honeycomb lattice model with two-site…
The search of novel topological phases, such as the quantum anomalous Hall insulator (QAHI) or the axion insulator, has motivated different schemes to introduce magnetism into topological insulators. One scheme is to introduce ferromagnetic dopants in topological insulators. However, it is generally challenging and requires carefully engineered growth/heterostructures or relatively low temperatures to observe the QAHI due to issues such as the added disorder with ferromagnetic dopants. Another promising scheme is using the magnetic proximity effect with a magnetic insulator to magnetize the to…
Transport Properties of Topological Insulators Films and Nanowires
近几年来,人们对拓扑绝缘体的研究和认识发展迅速。本文在简要总结了拓扑绝缘体的发展历史后,重点介绍了拓扑绝缘体薄膜和纳米线输运实验的最新进展。一些量子现象,包括弱反局域化,Aharonov玻姆效应和Shubnikov de Haas振荡,在这些纳米结构中观察到的描述。此外,超导邻近效应的电子输运证据,以及在拓扑绝缘体/超导体混合结构的异常电阻增强包括在内。
The disorder effects on higher-order topological phases in periodic systems have attracted much attention. However, in aperiodic systems, such as quasicrystalline systems, the interplay between disorder and higher-order topology is still unclear. In this paper, we investigate the effects of disorder on two types of second-order topological insulators, including a quasicrystalline quadrupole insulator and a modified quantum spin Hall insulator, in a two-dimensional Amman-Beenker tiling quasicrystalline lattice. We demonstrate that the higher-order topological insulators are robust against weak …
Tunneling magnetoresistance devices based on topological insulators: Ferromagnet/insulator/topological-insulator junctions employing Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$
本文从理论上研究了三维拓扑绝缘体Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$的隧穿磁电阻(TMR)器件。基于Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$的现实紧束缚模型进行理论计算。我们研究了利用Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$的表面态的三维器件,以及利用薄Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$条的边缘态的二维器件。我们证明了Bi $_{2}$ Se $_{3}$的材料性质允许在室温下的TMR比为1000%的量级。分析公式推导出,允许在这些设备中实现的TMR比的快速估计。该装置可用于测量自旋极化的拓扑表面状态作为替代自旋ARPES。与基于磁性隧道结的TMR器件不同,本器件避免使用其磁化需要被钉扎的第二铁磁电极。
International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University(北京大学物理学院量子材料国际中心);College of Physics, Hebei Normal University(河北师范大学物理学院);Hefei National Laboratory(合肥国家实验室)
A quadrupole topological insulator, being one higher-order topological insulator with nontrivial quadrupole quantization, has been intensely investigated very recently. However, the tight-binding model proposed for such emergent topological insulators demands both positive and negative hopping coefficients, which imposes an obstacle in practical realizations. Here we introduce a feasible approach to design the sign of hopping in acoustics, and construct the first acoustic quadrupole topological insulator that stringently emulates the tight-binding model. The inherent hierarchy quadrupole topol…
We study laser driven spin-current effects at ferromagnet/topological-insulator interfaces by two complementary experimental approaches. The DC photocurrent is studied in ferromagnet/topological-insulator bilayers with high spatial resolution. Dynamic interface currents are explored via the emission of terahertz radiation emitted by these currents with high temporal resolution. From our experiments, we reveal a lateral and dynamic interaction of the ferromagnet and the topological insulator interface.
In recent years, second-order topological insulators have been proposed as a new class of topological insulators. Second-order topological insulators are materials with gapped bulk and surfaces, but with topologically protected gapless states at the intersection of two surfaces. These gapless states are called hinge states. In this paper, we give a general proof that any insulators with inversion symmetry and gapped surface in class A always have hinge states when the $\mathbb{Z}_{4}$ topological index $μ_{1}$ is $μ_{1}=2$. We consider a three-dimensional insulator whose boundary conditions al…
Second-order topological insulator, which has (d-2)-dimensional topological hinge or corner states, has been observed in three-dimensional materials, but has yet not been observed in two-dimensional system. In this Letter, we theoretically propose the realization of second-order topological insulator in the van der Waals heterostructure of CoBr$_2$/Pt$_2$HgSe$_3$/CoBr$_2$. Pt$_2$HgSe$_3$ is a large gap $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological insulator. With in-plane exchange field from neighboring CoBr$_2$, a large band gap above 70 meV opens up at the edge. The corner states, which are robust against edge…
Quadrupole topological insulators are a new class of topological insulators with quantized quadrupole moments, which support protected gapless corner states. The experimental demonstrations of quadrupole-topological insulators were reported in a series of artificial materials, such as photonic crystals, acoustic crystals, and electrical circuits. In all these cases, the underlying structures have discrete translational symmetry and thus are periodic. Here we experimentally realize two-dimensional aperiodic-quasicrystalline quadrupole-topological insulators by constructing them in electrical ci…