No Arabic abstract
We theoretically investigate the RKKY exchange coupling between two ferromagnets (FM) separated by a thin topological insulator film (TI). We find an unusual dependence of the RKKY exchange coupling on the TI thickness ($t_{TI}$). First, when $t_{TI}$ decreases, the coupling amplitude increases at first and reaches its maximum value at some critical thickness, below which the amplitude turns to diminish. This trend is attributed to the hybridization between surfaces of the TI film, which opens a gap below critical thickness and thus turns the surfaces into insulating state from semi-metal state. In insulating phase, diamagnetism induced by the gap-opening compensates paramagnetism of Dirac state, resulting in a diminishing magnetic susceptibility and RKKY coupling. For typical parameters, the critical thickness in Bi2Se3 thin film is estimated to be in the range of 3-5 nm.
Combining magnetism and nontrivial band topology gives rise to quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators and exotic quantum phases such as the QAH effect where current flows without dissipation along quantized edge states. Inducing magnetic order in topological insulators via proximity to a magnetic material offers a promising pathway towards achieving QAH effect at high temperature for lossless transport applications. One promising architecture involves a sandwich structure comprising two single layers of MnBi2Te4 (a 2D ferromagnetic insulator) with ultra-thin Bi2Te3 in the middle, and is predicted to yield a robust QAH insulator phase with a bandgap well above thermal energy at room temperature (25 meV). Here we demonstrate the growth of a 1SL MnBi2Te4 / 4QL Bi2Te3 /1SL MnBi2Te4 heterostructure via molecular beam epitaxy, and probe the electronic structure using angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. We observe strong hexagonally warped massive Dirac Fermions and a bandgap of 75 meV. The magnetic origin of the gap is confirmed by the observation of broken time reversal symmetry and the exchange-Rashba effect, in excellent agreement with density functional theory calculations. These findings provide insights into magnetic proximity effects in topological insulators, that will move lossless transport in topological insulators towards higher temperature.
The dynamics of itinerant electrons in topological insulator (TI) thin films is investigated using a multi-band decomposition approach. We show that the electron trajectory in the 2D film is anisotropic and confined within a characteristic region. Remarkably, the confinement and anisotropy of the electron trajectory are associated with the topological phase transition of the TI system, which can be controlled by tuning the film thickness and/or applying an in-plane magnetic field. Moreover, persistent electron wavepacket oscillation can be achieved in the TI thin film system at the phase transition point, which may assist in the experimental detection of the jitter motion (Zitterbewegung). The implications of the microscopic picture of electron motion in explaining other transport-related effects, e.g., electron-mediated RKKY coupling in the TI thin film system, are also discussed.
We investigate the current-induced spin-orbit torque in thin topological insulator (TI) films in the presence of hybridization between the top and bottom surface states. We formulate the relation between spin torque and TI thickness, from which we derived the optimal value of the thickness to maximize the torque. We show numerically that in typical TI thin films made of $mathrm{Bi_2Se_3}$, the optimal thickness is about 3-5 nm.
We theoretically investigate tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) devices, which are probing the spin-momentum coupled nature of surface states of the three-dimensional topological insulator Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$. Theoretical calculations are performed based on a realistic tight-binding model for Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$. We study both three dimensional devices, which exploit the surface states of Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$, as well as two-dimensional devices, which exploit the edge states of thin Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ strips. We demonstrate that the material properties of Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ allow a TMR ratio at room temperature of the order of 1000%. Analytical formulas are derived that allow a quick estimate of the achievable TMR ratio in these devices. The devices can be used to measure the spin polarization of the topological surface states as an alternative to spin-ARPES. Unlike TMR devices based on magnetic tunnel junctions the present devices avoid the use of a second ferromagnetic electrode whose magnetization needs to be pinned.
A noticeable magnetoresistive effect has been observed on ferromagnet/superconductor/ferromagnet (FSF) microbridges based on diluted ferromagnetic PdFe alloy containing as small as 1% magnetic atoms. Microstructuring of the FSF trilayers does not destroy the effect: the most pronounced curves were obtained on the smallest bridges of 6-8 um wide and 10-15 um long. Below the superconducting transition we are able to control the critical current of microbridges by switching between P and AP orientations of magnetizations of PdFe layers. The operation of FSF-bridge as a magnetic switch is demonstrated in several regimes providing significant voltage discrimination between digital states or remarkably low bit error rate.