2014/01/31 by Jiansheng Wu, Jie Liu, Xiong-Jun Liu · 1 citation
Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Condensed Matter Physics #Computer science #Condensed matter physics #Electron #Ferromagnetism #Graphene research and applications #Insulator (electricity) #Mathematics #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum #Quantum Hall effect #Quantum mechanics #Quantum spin Hall effect #Spin (aerodynamics) #Spin Hall effect #Spin polarization #Spintronics #Texture (cosmology) #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topological order #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.113.136403
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 136403 (2014) · 5 pages manuscript, 8+ pages supplementary information, 8 figures; published version
openalex publication_date 2014/09/26 · arxiv created 2014/09/27 · arxiv updated 2014/09/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been recently discovered in an experiment using a thin-film topological insulator with ferromagnetic ordering and strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we investigate the spin degree of freedom of a QAH insulator and uncover the fundamental phenomenon that the edge states exhibit a topologically stable spin texture in the boundary when a chiral-like symmetry is present. This result shows that edge states are chiral in both the orbital and spin degrees of freedom, and the chiral edge spin texture corresponds to the bulk topological states of the QAH insulator. We also study the potential applications of the edge spin texture in designing topological-state-based spin devices, which might be applicable to future spintronic technologies.