2015/05/31 by J. L. Lado, J. Fernandez-Rossier · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.92.115433
published as Phys. Rev. B 92, 115433 (2015) · 7 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2015/09/29 · arxiv updated 2015/09/30
Skyrmions are topologically protected spin textures, characterized by a topological winding number N , that occur spontaneously in some magnetic materials. Recent experiments have demonstrated the capability to grow graphene on top Fe/Ir, a system that exhibits a two dimensional Skyrmion lattice. Here we show that a weak exchange coupling between the Dirac electrons in graphene and a two dimensional Skyrmion lattice with N = ± 1 drives graphene into a quantum anomalous Hall phase, with a band-gap in bulk, a Chern number \cal C=2N and chiral edge states with perfect quantization of conductance G = 2N(e2)/(h) . Our findings imply that the topological properties of the Skyrmion lattice can be imprinted in the Dirac electrons of graphene.