Observation of Magnetism-Induced Topological Edge State in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulator MnBi 4 Te 7

Breaking time reversal symmetry in a topological insulator may lead to quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulator phase. MnBi Te is a recently discovered antiferromagnetic topological insulator with ∼ 12.5 K, which is composed of an alternatively stacked magnetic layer (MnBi Te ) and nonmagne...

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Published in:ACS nano 2022-06, Vol.16 (6), p.9810-9818
Main Authors: Xu, Hao-Ke, Gu, Mingqiang, Fei, Fucong, Gu, Yi-Sheng, Liu, Dang, Yu, Qiao-Yan, Xue, Sha-Sha, Ning, Xu-Hui, Chen, Bo, Xie, Hangkai, Zhu, Zhen, Guan, Dandan, Wang, Shiyong, Li, Yaoyi, Liu, Canhua, Liu, Qihang, Song, Fengqi, Zheng, Hao, Jia, Jinfeng
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Breaking time reversal symmetry in a topological insulator may lead to quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulator phase. MnBi Te is a recently discovered antiferromagnetic topological insulator with ∼ 12.5 K, which is composed of an alternatively stacked magnetic layer (MnBi Te ) and nonmagnetic layer (Bi Te ). By means of scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we clearly observe the electronic state present at a step edge of a magnetic MnBi Te layer but absent at nonmagnetic Bi Te layers at 4.5 K. Furthermore, we find that as the temperature rises above the edge state vanishes, while the point defect induced state persists upon an increase in temperature. These results confirm the observation of magnetism-induced edge states. Our analysis based on an axion insulator theory reveals that the nontrivial topological nature of the observed edge state.
ISSN:1936-0851
1936-086X
DOI:10.1021/acsnano.2c03622