Axion Insulator State in a Ferromagnet/Topological Insulator/Antiferromagnet Heterostructure

2018/09/30 by Yusheng Hou, Y. S. Hou, Ruqian Wu +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Antiferromagnetism #Axion #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Condensed matter physics #Ferromagnetism #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Heterojunction #Insulator (electricity) #Magnetic field #Optoelectronics #Physics #Quantum Hall effect #Quantum anomalous Hall effect #Quantum many-body systems #Quantum mechanics #Surface (topology) #Surface states #Topological Materials and Phenomena #Topological insulator #Topology (electrical circuits) #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #van der Waals force

paper · pdf · doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b00047

published as Nano Lett. 19, 2472 (2019) · 4 figures, 23 pages,supplementary material added

arxiv created 2018/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2019/03/14 · arxiv updated 2019/04/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose the use of ferromagnetic insulator MnBi 2 Se 4 /Bi 2 Se 3 /antiferromagnetic insulator Mn 2 Bi 2 Se 5 heterostructures for the realization of the axion insulator state. Importantly, the axion insulator state in such heterostructures only depends on the magnetization of the ferromagnetic insulator and, hence, can be observed in a wide range of external magnetic fields. Using density functional calculations and model Hamiltonian simulations, we find that the top and bottom surfaces have opposite half-quantum Hall conductances, and, with a sizable global spin gap of 5.1 meV opened for the topological surface states of Bi 2 Se 3 . Our work provides a new strategy for the search of axion insulators by using van der Waals antiferromagnetic insulators along with three-dimensional topological insulators.

Citations

• Topological field theory of time-reversal invariant insulators
• Projector augmented-wave method
• From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method
• Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
• Canonical dynamics: Equilibrium phase-space distributions
• A unified formulation of the constant temperature molecular dynamics methods
• Topological insulators and superconductors
• Massive Dirac fermions and spin physics in an ultrathin film of topological insulator
• Quantized Hall Conductance in a Two-Dimensional Periodic Potential
• Inducing a Magnetic Monopole with Topological Surface States
• Revival of the magnetoelectric effect
• Ab initiomolecular dynamics for liquid metals
• Efficient iterative schemes forab initiototal-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set
• Topological Insulators
• Density-functional theory and strong interactions: Orbital ordering in Mott-Hubbard insulators
• Experimental realization of an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator