Observation of the zero Hall plateau in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator

Abstract

Quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect in magnetic topological insulator (TI) is a novel transport phenomenon in which the Hall resistance reaches the quantum plateau in the absence of external magnetic field. Recently, this exotic effect has been discovered experimentally in an ultrathin film of the Bi2Te3 family TI with spontaneous ferromagnetic (FM) order. An important question concerning the QAH state is whether it is simply a zero-magnetic-field version of the quantum Hall (QH) effect, or if there is new physics beyond the conventional paradigm. Here we report experimental investigations on the quantum phase transition between the two opposite Hall plateaus of a QAH insulator caused by magnetization reversal. We observe a well-defined plateau with zero Hall conductivity over a range of magnetic field around coercivity, consistent with a recent theoretical prediction. The features of the zero Hall plateau are shown to be closely related to that of the QAH effect, but its temperature evolution exhibits quantitative differences from the network model for conventional QH plateau transition. We propose that the chiral edge states residing at the magnetic domain boundaries, which are unique to a QAH insulator, are responsible for the zero Hall plateau. The rich magnetic domain dynamics makes the QAH effect a distinctive class of quantum phenomenon that may find novel applications in spintronics.

4 figures, supplementary information included

References in corpus (10)

• Experimental Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators
• High-precision realization of robust quantum anomalous Hall state in a hard ferromagnetic topological insulator
• Landau Level Splitting in Graphene in High Magnetic Fields
• Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Hg${}_{1-y}$Mn${}_y$Te Quantum Wells
• Trajectory of Anomalous Hall Effect toward the Quantized State in a Ferromagnetic Topological Insulator
• Scale-Invariant Dissipationless Chiral Transport in Magnetic Topological Insulators beyond the Two-Dimensional Limit
• Surface quantized anomalous Hall current and magneto-electric effect in magnetically disordered topological insulators
• The zero-energy state in graphene in a high magnetic field

Cited by in corpus (69)

• Colloquium: Quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Chiral Majorana edge state in a quantum anomalous Hall insulator-superconductor structure
• Realization of the Axion Insulator State in Quantum Anomalous Hall Sandwich Heterostructures
• Magnetic modulation doping in topological insulators toward higher-temperature quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Intrinsic Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in the Kagome Lattice Cs2LiMn3F12
• Highly-ordered wide bandgap materials for quantized anomalous Hall and magnetoelectric effects
• Variety of magnetic topological phases in the (MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$)(Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$)${}_m$ family
• Metal-to-Insulator Switching in Quantum Anomalous Hall States
• Two-dimensional Weyl Half Semimetal and Tunable Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Monolayer PtCl${}_3$
• Quantized chiral edge conduction on reconfigurable domain walls of a magnetic topological insulator
• Non-Majorana Origin of the Half-Quantized Conductance Plateau in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator and Superconductor Hybrid Structures
• Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Time-Reversal-Symmetry Breaking Topological Insulators
• Scaling of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect as an Indicator of Axion Electrodynamics
• Quantum transport of two-species Dirac fermions in dual-gated three-dimensional topological insulators
• Direct evidence of ferromagnetism in a quantum anomalous Hall system
• Large discrete jumps observed in the transition between Chern states in a ferromagnetic Topological Insulator
• Observation of the quantum-anomalous-Hall insulator to Anderson insulator quantum phase transition and its scaling behavior
• Quasi-one-dimensional Quantum Anomalous Hall Systems as New Platforms for Scalable Topological Quantum Computation
• Routes to realize the axion-insulator phase in MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$(Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$)${}_n$ family: a perspective
• Zero-field Edge Magnetoplasmons in a Magnetic Topological Insulator
• Effects of Domain Walls in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator/Superconductor Heterostructures
• Effects of random domains on the zero Hall plateau in quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Critical Behavior and Universal Signature of an Axion Insulator State
• Progress and prospects in the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Topological quantum phase transition in magnetic topological insulator upon magnetization rotation
• Electrically tunable topological superconductivity and Majorana fermions in two dimensions
• Observation of superparamagnetism in coexistence with quantum anomalous Hall C=$\pm$1 and C=0 Chern states
• Functional renormalization group for a large moiré unit cell
• A Non-Volatile Cryogenic Random-Access Memory Based on the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect
• Bulk dissipation in the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Severe Dirac Mass Gap Suppression in Sb_2Te_3-based Quantum Anomalous Hall Materials
• Magnetic-Resonance-Induced Pseudo-electric Field and Giant Current Response in Axion Insulators
• Evolution of Berry curvature and reentrant quantum anomalous Hall effect in an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator
• Local optical control of ferromagnetism and chemical potential in a topological insulator
• Magnetic-field-induced topological phase transition in Fe-doped (Bi,Sb)${}_2$Se${}_3$ heterostructures
• Axion Insulator State in Hundred-Nanometer-Thick Magnetic Topological Insulator Sandwich Heterostructures
• Distinct quantum anomalous Hall ground states induced by magnetic disorders
• Multiple Chiral Majorana Fermion Modes and Quantum Transport
• Realization of Stable Ferromagnetic Order in Topological Insulator: Codoping Enhanced Magnetism in 4f Transition Metal Doped Bi2Se3
• All-electrical Magnon Transport Experiments in Magnetically Ordered Insulators
• Quantum Anomalous Parity Hall Effect in Magnetically Disordered Topological Insulator Films
• Demonstration of Dissipative Quasihelical Edge Transport in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators
• Conductance fluctuations and disorder induced $\nu =0$ quantum Hall plateau in topological insulator nanowires
• Current scaling of the topological quantum phase transition between a quantum anomalous Hall insulator and a trivial insulator
• High temperature, gate-free quantum anomalous Hall effect with an active capping layer
• Low-damage electron beam lithography for nanostructures on Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$-class topological insulator thin films
• Topological Magnetoelectric Response in Ferromagnetic Axion Insulators
• Phase transitions in intrinsic magnetic topological insulator with high-frequency pumping
• Topological Phase Transitions Induced by Disorder in Magnetically Doped (Bi, Sb)${}_2$Te${}_3$ Thin Films
• Ferromagnetism and glassiness on the surface of topological insulators
• Smearing of the quantum anomalous Hall effect due to statistical fluctuations of magnetic dopants
• Finite temperature effects on Majorana bound states in chiral $p$-wave superconductors
• Transport in topological insulator nanowires
• Direct probe of ferromagnetic proximity effect at the interface in Fe/SnTe heterostructure by polarized neutron reflectometry
• Three-Dimensional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulator Trilayers of Hundred-Nanometer Thickness
• Topological Insulators-Based Magnetic Heterostructure
• Chiral edge state coupling theory of transport in quantum anomalous Hall insulators
• Enhancement of temperature of quantum anomalous Hall effect in two-dimensional germanene/magnetic semiconductor heterostructures
• Environmental Doping-Induced Degradation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators
• Dynamical Gap Generation in Topological Insulators
• Realization of a three-dimensional quantum Hall effect in a Zeeman-induced second order topological insulator on a torus
• Revisiting magnetic exchange interactions in transition metal doped Bi${}_2$Se${}_3$ using DFT+MFT
• Direct visualization of edge state in even-layer MnBi2Te4 at zero magnetic field
• Dynamical simulation of the injection of vortices into a Majorana edge mode
• To See a World in a Grain of Sand -- The Scientific Life of Shoucheng Zhang
• High Chern number phase in topological insulator multilayer structures: a Dirac cone model study
• Robust quantum anomalous Hall effect with spatially uncorrelated disorder
• Correlated disorder induced anomalous transport in magnetically doped topological insulators
• Interlayer Exchange Coupling-Induced Critical-Metal-to-Insulator Phase Transition in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators