Antiferromagnetic order in MnBi2Te4 films grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

MnBi2Te4 has recently been predicted and shown to be a magnetic topological insulator with intrinsic antiferromagnetic order. However, it remains a challenge to grow stoichiometric MnBi2Te4 films by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and to observe pure antiferromagnetic order by magnetometry. We report on a detailed study of MnBi2Te4 films grown on Si(111) by MBE with elemental sources. Films of about 100 nm thickness are analyzed in stoichiometric, structural, magnetic and magnetotransport properties with high accuracy. High-quality MnBi2Te4 films with nearly perfect septuple-layer structure are realized and structural defects typical for epitaxial van-der-Waals layers are analyzed. The films reveal antiferromagnetic order with a Neel temperature of 19 K, a spin-flop transition at a magnetic field of 2.5 T and a resistivity of 1.6 mOhm cm. These values are comparable to that of bulk MnBi2Te4 crystals. Our results provide an important basis for realizing and identifying single-phase MnBi2Te4 films with antiferromagnetic order grown by MBE.

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Quantized anomalous Hall resistivity achieved in molecular beam epitaxy-grown MnBi2Te4 thin films
• Enhanced magnetoelectric coupling in two-dimensional hybrid multiferroic heterostructures
• Correlation between magnetic domain structures and quantum anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial MnBi2Te4 thin films
• Phonon and defect mediated quantum anomalous Hall insulator to metal transition in magnetically doped topological insulators
• Single-layer magnet phase in intrinsic magnetic topological insulators, $[\mathrm{MnTe}][{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_3{]}_{\mathrm{n}}$, far beyond the thermodynamic limit
• Magneto-optical effects of an artificially-layered ferromagnetic topological insulator with T${}_C$ of 160 K