Magnetoconductance signatures of chiral domain-wall bound states in magnetic topological insulators

Abstract

Recent magnetoconductance measurements performed on magnetic topological insulator candidates have revealed butterfly-shaped hysteresis. This hysteresis has been attributed to the formation of gapless chiral domain-wall bound states during a magnetic field sweep. We treat this phenomenon theoretically, providing a link between microscopic magnetization dynamics and butterfly hysteresis in magnetoconductance. Further, we illustrate how a spatially resolved conductance measurement can probe the most striking feature of the domain-wall bound states: their chirality. This work establishes a regime where a definitive link between butterfly hysteresis in longitudinal magneto-conductance and domain-wall bound states can be made. This analysis provides an important tool for the identification of magnetic topological insulators.

v2: Final published version; 7 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Surface State Magnetization and Chiral Edge States on Topological Insulators
• Chiral transport along magnetic domain walls in the quantum anomalous Hall effect
• Stationary and transient leakage current in the Pauli spin blockade

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Distinct quantum anomalous Hall ground states induced by magnetic disorders
• Long-lived non-equilibrium superconductivity in a non-centrosymmetric Rashba semiconductor