Half-Magnetic Topological Insulator with Magnetization-Induced Dirac Gap at a Selected Surface

oleh: Ruie Lu, Hongyi Sun, Shiv Kumar, Yuan Wang, Mingqiang Gu, Meng Zeng, Yu-Jie Hao, Jiayu Li, Jifeng Shao, Xiao-Ming Ma, Zhanyang Hao, Ke Zhang, Wumiti Mansuer, Jiawei Mei, Yue Zhao, Cai Liu, Ke Deng, Wen Huang, Bing Shen, Kenya Shimada, Eike F. Schwier, Chang Liu, Qihang Liu, Chaoyu Chen

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: American Physical Society 2021-02-01

Deskripsi

Topological magnets are a new family of quantum materials providing great potential to realize emergent phenomena, such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect and the axion-insulator state. Here, we present our discovery that the stoichiometric ferromagnet MnBi_{8}Te_{13} with natural heterostructure MnBi_{2}Te_{4}/(Bi_{2}Te_{3})_{3} is an unprecedented “half-magnetic topological insulator,” with the magnetization existing at the MnBi_{2}Te_{4} surface but not at the opposite surface terminated by triple Bi_{2}Te_{3} layers. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements unveil a massive Dirac gap at the MnBi_{2}Te_{4} surface and a gapless Dirac cone on the other side. Remarkably, the Dirac gap (about 28 meV) at the MnBi_{2}Te_{4} surface decreases monotonically with increasing temperature and closes right at the Curie temperature, thereby representing the first smoking-gun spectroscopic evidence of a magnetization-induced topological surface gap among all known magnetic topological materials. We further demonstrate theoretically that the half-magnetic topological insulator is desirable to realize the surface anomalous Hall effect, which serves as direct proof of the general concept of axion electrodynamics in condensed matter systems.