Magnetoelectric effect in topological insulator films beyond the linear response regime

Abstract

We study the response of topological insulator films to strong magnetic and electric fields beyond the linear response theory. As a model, we use the three-dimensional lattice Wilson-Dirac Hamiltonian where we simultaneously introduce both magnetic field through the Peierls substitution and electric field as a potential energy depending on lattice coordinate. We compute the electron energy spectrum by numerically diagonalizing this Hamiltonian and obtain quantized magnetoelectric polarizability. In addition, we find that the magnetoelectric effect vanishes as the film width decreases due to the hybridization of surface wave functions. Furthermore, applying a gate voltage between the surfaces, we observe several quantized plateaus of $\theta$ term, which are mainly determined by the Landau level structures on the top and bottom surfaces.

6 pages, 6 figures, update to published version

References in corpus (8)

• Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Discovery (theoretical prediction and experimental observation) of a large-gap topological-insulator class with spin-polarized single-Dirac-cone on the surface
• A topological Dirac insulator in a quantum spin Hall phase : Experimental observation of first strong topological insulator
• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Topological response in Weyl semimetals and the chiral anomaly
• Surface quantized anomalous Hall current and magneto-electric effect in magnetically disordered topological insulators
• Ordering of magnetic impurities and tunable electronic properties of topological insulators
• Theory of orbital magnetoelectric response

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Colloquium: Topological Band Theory
• Quantum transport of two-species Dirac fermions in dual-gated three-dimensional topological insulators
• Viscoelastic response of topological tight-binding models in two and three dimensions
• Half-integer quantum Hall effect of disordered Dirac fermions at a topological insulator surface
• Axion Insulator State in a Ferromagnet/Topological Insulator/Antiferromagnet Heterostructure
• Weyl Semimetal in the Strong Coulomb Interaction Limit
• Electron-magnon coupling and quasiparticle lifetimes on the surface of a topological insulator
• Orbital Edelstein effect from density-wave order
• Topological magnetoelectric response in passive magnetic devices