Spacer-layer-tunable magnetism and high-field topological Hall effect in topological insulator heterostructures

Abstract

Controlling magnetic order in magnetic topological insulators (MTIs) is a key to developing spintronic applications with MTIs, and is commonly achieved by changing the magnetic doping concentration, which inevitably affects spin-orbit-coupling strength and the very topological properties. Here, we demonstrate tunable magnetic properties in topological heterostructures over a wide range, from a ferromagnetic phase with Curie temperature of around 100 K all the way to a paramagnetic phase, while keeping the overall chemical composition the same, by controlling the thickness of non-magnetic spacer layers between two atomically-thin magnetic layers. This work showcases that spacer-layer control is a powerful tool to manipulate magneto-topological functionalities in MTI heterostructures. Furthermore, the interaction between the MTI and the Cr2O3 buffer layers also led to robust topological Hall effect surviving up to a record-high 6 T of magnetic field, shedding light on the critical role of interfacial layers in thin film topological materials.

25 pages, 5 figures, accepted by Nano Letters

References in corpus (8)

• Quantized Anomalous Hall Effect in Magnetic Topological Insulators
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• Tailoring Hybrid Anomalous Hall Response in Engineered Magnetic Topological Insulator Heterostructures

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Atomic-Layer-Controlled Magnetic Orders in MnBi2Te4-Bi2Te3 Topological Heterostructures
• Single-layer magnet phase in intrinsic magnetic topological insulators, $[\mathrm{MnTe}][{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_3{]}_{\mathrm{n}}$, far beyond the thermodynamic limit