Layer Hall effect in a 2D topological axion antiferromagnet

Anyuan Gao, Yu-Fei Liu, Chaowei Hu, Jian-Xiang Qiu, Christian Tzschaschel, Barun Ghosh, Sheng-Chin Ho, Damien Bérubé, Rui Chen, Haipeng Sun, Zhaowei Zhang, Xin-Yue Zhang, Yu-Xuan Wang, Naizhou Wang, Zumeng Huang, Claudia Felser, Amit Agarwal, Thomas Ding, Hung-Ju Tien, Austin Akey, Jules Gardener, Bahadur Singh, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenneth S. Burch, David C. Bell, Brian B. Zhou, Weibo Gao, Hai-Zhou Lu, Arun Bansil, Hsin Lin, Tay-Rong Chang, Liang Fu, Qiong Ma, Ni Ni () and Su-Yang Xu ()
Additional contact information
Anyuan Gao: Harvard University
Yu-Fei Liu: Harvard University
Chaowei Hu: University of California, Los Angeles
Jian-Xiang Qiu: Harvard University
Christian Tzschaschel: Harvard University
Barun Ghosh: Indian Institute of Technology
Sheng-Chin Ho: Harvard University
Damien Bérubé: Harvard University
Rui Chen: Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)
Haipeng Sun: Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)
Zhaowei Zhang: Nanyang Technological University
Xin-Yue Zhang: Boston College
Yu-Xuan Wang: Boston College
Naizhou Wang: Nanyang Technological University
Zumeng Huang: Nanyang Technological University
Claudia Felser: Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
Amit Agarwal: Indian Institute of Technology
Thomas Ding: Boston College
Hung-Ju Tien: National Cheng Kung University
Austin Akey: Harvard University
Jules Gardener: Harvard University
Bahadur Singh: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research
Kenji Watanabe: National Institute for Materials Science
Takashi Taniguchi: National Institute for Materials Science
Kenneth S. Burch: Boston College
David C. Bell: Harvard University
Brian B. Zhou: Boston College
Weibo Gao: Nanyang Technological University
Hai-Zhou Lu: Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)
Arun Bansil: Northeastern University
Hsin Lin: Academia Sinica
Tay-Rong Chang: National Cheng Kung University
Liang Fu: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Qiong Ma: Boston College
Ni Ni: University of California, Los Angeles
Su-Yang Xu: Harvard University

Nature, 2021, vol. 595, issue 7868, 521-525

Abstract: Abstract Whereas ferromagnets have been known and used for millennia, antiferromagnets were only discovered in the 1930s1. At large scale, because of the absence of global magnetization, antiferromagnets may seem to behave like any non-magnetic material. At the microscopic level, however, the opposite alignment of spins forms a rich internal structure. In topological antiferromagnets, this internal structure leads to the possibility that the property known as the Berry phase can acquire distinct spatial textures2,3. Here we study this possibility in an antiferromagnetic axion insulator—even-layered, two-dimensional MnBi2Te4—in which spatial degrees of freedom correspond to different layers. We observe a type of Hall effect—the layer Hall effect—in which electrons from the top and bottom layers spontaneously deflect in opposite directions. Specifically, under zero electric field, even-layered MnBi2Te4 shows no anomalous Hall effect. However, applying an electric field leads to the emergence of a large, layer-polarized anomalous Hall effect of about 0.5e2/h (where e is the electron charge and h is Planck’s constant). This layer Hall effect uncovers an unusual layer-locked Berry curvature, which serves to characterize the axion insulator state. Moreover, we find that the layer-locked Berry curvature can be manipulated by the axion field formed from the dot product of the electric and magnetic field vectors. Our results offer new pathways to detect and manipulate the internal spatial structure of fully compensated topological antiferromagnets4–9. The layer-locked Berry curvature represents a first step towards spatial engineering of the Berry phase through effects such as layer-specific moiré potential.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03679-w

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