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Condensed Matter > Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Title: Chern Number Tunable Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Compensated Antiferromagnets

Abstract: We propose to realize quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) in two-dimensional antiferromagnetic topological insulators. We consider antiferromagnetic MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ as a concrete example. In contrast to the even-layer A-type antiferromagnetic MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ that has zero Chern number due to the combined parity-time ($\mathcal{PT}$) symmetry, the system can host a nonzero Chern number by breaking this symmetry. We show that by controlling the antiferromagnetic spin configuration, for example, down/up/up/down, to break $\mathcal{PT}$ symmetry, tetralayer antiferromagnetic MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ can realize QAHE with Chern number $\mathcal{C}=-1$. Such spin configuration can be stablized by pinning the spin orientations on top and bottom layers. Furthermore, we reveal that the edge states are layer-selective and primarily locate at the boundaries of the bottom and top layers. In addition, via tuning the on-site orbital energy which determines the inverted band gap, we find tunable Chern number from $\mathcal{C}=-1$ to $\mathcal{C}=2$ and then to $\mathcal{C}=-1$. Our work not only proposes a scheme to realize Chern number tunable QAHE in antiferromagnets without net spin magnetization, but also provide a platform for layer-selective dissipationless transport devices.
Subjects: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall)
Cite as: arXiv:2404.13305 [cond-mat.mes-hall]
  (or arXiv:2404.13305v1 [cond-mat.mes-hall] for this version)

Submission history

From: Zhenhua Qiao [view email]
[v1] Sat, 20 Apr 2024 07:27:05 GMT (5614kb)

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