No Arabic abstract
The topological Hall effect (THE), induced by the Berry curvature, which originates from non-zero scalar spin chirality, is an important feature for mesoscopic topological structures, such as skyrmions. However, the THE might also arise from other microscopic non-coplanar spin structures in the lattice. Thus, the origin of the THE inevitably needs to be determined to fully understand skyrmions and find new host materials. Here, we examine the Hall effect in both bulk- and micron-sized lamellar samples of MnBi. The sample size affects the temperature and field range in which the THE is detectable. Although bulk sample exhibits the THE only upon exposure to weak fields in the easy-cone state, in thin lamella the THE exists across a wide temperature range and occurs at fields near saturation. Our results show that both the non-coplanar spin structure in the lattice and topologically non-trivial skyrmion bubbles are responsible for the THE, and that the dominant mechanism depends on the sample size. Hence, the magnetic phase diagram for MnBi is strongly size-dependent. Our study provides an example in which the THE is simultaneously induced by two mechanisms, and builds a bridge between mesoscopic and microscopic magnetic structures.
The Hall effect, the anomalous Hall effect and the spin Hall effect are fundamental transport processes in solids arising from the Lorentz force and the spin-orbit coupling respectively. The quant
Topological states of quantum matter have attracted great attention in condensed matter physics and materials science. The study of time-reversal-invariant (TRI) topological states in quantum materials has made tremendous progress in both theories and experiments. As a great success, thousands of TRI topological materials are predicted through sweeping search. Richer exotic phenomena are expected to appear in magnetic topological materials because of varied magnetic configurations, but this study falls much behind due to the complex magnetic structures and transitions. Here, we predict the tetradymite-type compound MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ and its related materials host interesting magnetic topological states. The magnetic ground state of MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ is an antiferromagnetic phase which leads to an antiferromagetic topological insulator state with a large topologically non-trivial energy gap ($sim$0.2~eV). It is the parent state for the axion state, which has gapped bulk and surface states, and quantized topological magnetoelectric effect. The ferromagnetic phase of MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ leads to an ideal minimal type-II Weyl semimetal with two Weyl points accompanied by one hole-type and one electron-type Fermi pocket at the Fermi level, which has never been discovered elsewhere. We further present a simple and unified continuum model to capture the salient topological features of this kind of materials.
The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state is a two-dimensional bulk insulator with a non-zero Chern number in absence of external magnetic fields. Protected gapless chiral edge states enable dissipationless current transport in electronic devices. Doping topological insulators with random magnetic impurities could realize the QAH state, but magnetic order is difficult to establish experimentally in the bulk insulating limit. Here we predict that the single quintuple layer of GdBiTe3 film could be a stoichiometric QAH insulator based on ab-initio calculations, which explicitly demonstrate ferromagnetic order and chiral edge states inside the bulk gap. We further investigate the topological quantum phase transition by tuning the lattice constant and interactions. A simple low-energy effective model is presented to capture the salient physical feature of this topological material.
A prominent feature of topological insulators (TIs) is the surface states comprising of spin-nondegenerate massless Dirac fermions. Recent technical advances have made it possible to address the surface transport properties of TI thin films while tuning the Fermi levels of both top and bottom surfaces across the Dirac point by electrostatic gating. This opened the window for studying the spin-nondegenerate Dirac physics peculiar to TIs. Here we report our discovery of a novel planar Hall effect (PHE) from the TI surface, which results from a hitherto-unknown resistivity anisotropy induced by an in-plane magnetic field. This effect is observed in dual-gated devices of bulk-insulating Bi$_{2-x}$Sb$_{x}$Te$_{3}$ thin films, in which both top and bottom surfaces are gated. The origin of PHE is the peculiar time-reversal-breaking effect of an in-plane magnetic field, which anisotropically lifts the protection of surface Dirac fermions from back-scattering. The key signature of the field-induced anisotropy is a strong dependence on the gate voltage with a characteristic two-peak structure near the Dirac point which is explained theoretically using a self-consistent T-matrix approximation. The observed PHE provides a new tool to analyze and manipulate the topological protection of the TI surface in future experiments.
We used micromagnetic simulations to investigate the spatial distributions of the effective magnetic fields induced by spin chirality in crossed nanowires with three characteristic magnetic structures: a radiated-shape, an antivortex, and a uniform-like states. Our results indicate that, unlike the anomalous Hall effect, the topological Hall effect (which is related to the spin chirality) depends on both the polarity and the vorticity. Therefore, measuring the topological Hall effect can detect both the polarity and the vorticity simultaneously in crossed nanowires. This approach may be suitable for use as an elemental technique in the quest for a next-generation multi-value memory.