Current-driven instability of quantum anomalous Hall effect in ferromagnetic topological insulators

Abstract

Instability of quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has been studied as function of electric current and temperature in ferromagnetic topological insulator thin films. We find that a characteristic current for the breakdown of the QAH effect is roughly proportional to the Hall-bar width, indicating that Hall electric field is relevant to the breakdown. We also find that electron transport is dominated by variable range hopping (VRH) at low temperatures. Combining the current and temperature dependences of the conductivity in the VRH regime, the localization length of the QAH state is evaluated to be about 5 $\mu$m. The long localization length suggests a marginally insulating nature of the QAH state due to a large number of in-gap states.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PRL

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• Part-per-million quantization and current-induced breakdown of the quantum anomalous Hall effect
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• Confinement-Induced Chiral Edge Channel Interaction in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators
• Progress and prospects in the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Experimental evidence on the dissipationless transport of chiral edge state of the high-field Chern insulator in MnBi2Te4 nanodevices
• Induced superconducting correlations in the quantum anomalous Hall insulator
• Bulk dissipation in the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Severe Dirac Mass Gap Suppression in Sb_2Te_3-based Quantum Anomalous Hall Materials
• Demonstration of Dissipative Quasihelical Edge Transport in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators
• Current scaling of the topological quantum phase transition between a quantum anomalous Hall insulator and a trivial insulator
• Balanced Quantum Hall Resistor
• Zero external magnetic field quantum standard of resistance at the 10-9 level
• Propagation, dissipation and breakdown in quantum anomalous Hall edge states probed by microwave edge plasmons
• Probing breakdown of topological protection: Filling-factor-dependent evolution of robust quantum Hall incompressible phases
• Three-Dimensional Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulator Trilayers of Hundred-Nanometer Thickness
• CdTe and HgTe doped with V, Cr, and Mn -- prospects for the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Edge supercurrent in Josephson junctions based on topological materials
• Anomalous Fraunhofer-like patterns in quantum anomalous Hall Josephson junction
• Interlayer Coupling-Induced Quantum Phase Transition in Quantum Anomalous Hall Multilayers
• Quantum anomalous Hall effect in chiral semimetals
• Interlayer Exchange Coupling-Induced Critical-Metal-to-Insulator Phase Transition in Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulators