Observation of chiral currents at the magnetic domain boundary of a topological insulator

Abstract

A magnetic domain boundary on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator is predicted to host a chiral edge state, but direct demonstration is challenging. Here, we used a scanning superconducting quantum interference device to show that current in a magnetized EuS/Bi2Se3 heterostructure flows at the edge when the Fermi level is gate-tuned to the surface band gap. We further induced micron-scale magnetic structures on the heterostructure, and detected a chiral edge current at the magnetic domain boundary. The chirality of the current was determined by magnetization of the surrounding domain and its magnitude by the local chemical potential rather than the applied current. Such magnetic structures, provide a platform for detecting topological magnetoelectric effects and may enable progress in quantum information processing and spintronics.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Opportunities in topological insulator devices
• Inhomogeneous Weyl and Dirac semimetals: Transport in axial magnetic fields and Fermi arc surface states from pseudo Landau levels
• Torsional chiral magnetic effect in Weyl semimetal with topological defect
• Electrically tunable multi-terminal SQUID-on-tip
• Local optical control of ferromagnetism and chemical potential in a topological insulator
• Chiral and Non-Chiral Edge States in Quantum Hall Systems with Charge Density Modulation
• Dynamical Gap Generation in Topological Insulators