Critical Behavior and Universal Signature of an Axion Insulator State

Abstract

Recently, the search for an axion insulator state in the ferromagnet-3D topological insulator (TI) heterostructure and $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_4$ has attracted intensive interest. However, its detection remains difficult in experiments. We systematically investigate the disorder-induced phase transition of the axion insulator state in a 3D TI with antiparallel magnetization alignment surfaces. It is found that there exists a 2D disorder-induced phase transition which shares the same universality class with the quantum Hall plateau to plateau transition. Then, we provide a phenomenological theory which maps the random mass Dirac Hamiltonian of the axion insulator state into the Chalker-Coddington network model. Therefore, we propose to probe the axion insulator state by investigating the universal signature of such a phase transition in the ferromagnet-3D TI heterostructure and $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_4$. Our findings not only show a global phase diagram of the axion insulator state, but also provide a new experimental routine to probe it.

References in corpus (8)

• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
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• Critical exponent for the quantum Hall transition
• Two-dimensional spin-filtered chiral network model for the Z_2 quantum spin-Hall effect
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• Finite Size Effects and Irrelevant Corrections to Scaling near the Integer Quantum Hall Transition

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Routes to realize the axion-insulator phase in MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$(Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$)${}_n$ family: a perspective