Half-Quantized Helical Hinge Currents in Axion Insulators

Abstract

We propose that half-quantized helical hinge currents manifest as the fingerprint of the axion insulator (AI). These helical hinge currents microscopically originate from the lateral Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift of massless side-surface Dirac electrons that are totally reflected from the hinges. Meanwhile, due to the presence of the massive top and bottom surfaces of the AI, the helical current induced by the GH shift is half-quantized. The semiclassical wave packet analysis uncovers that the hinge current has a topological origin and its half-quantization is robust to parameter changes. Lastly, we propose an experimentally feasible six-terminal device to identify the half-quantized hinge channels by measuring the nonreciprocal conductances. Our results advance the understanding of the non-trivial transport and topological magnetoelectric responses in AIs.

6 pages, 4 figures (+ supplementary materials 15 pages, 5 figures)

References in corpus (11)

• Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
• Observation of topological surface state quantum Hall effect in an intrinsic three-dimensional topological insulator
• Higher-order Topology of Axion Insulator EuIn${}_2$As${}_2$
• Quantum Goos-Hanchen effect in graphene
• Axion Electrodynamics in Topological Materials
• Tailoring tricolor structure of magnetic topological insulator for robust axion insulator
• Half-Quantized Hall Effect and Power Law Decay of Edge Current Distribution
• Surface theorem for the Chern-Simons axion coupling
• Any Axion Insulator Must be a Bulk Three-Dimensional Topological Insulator
• Routes to realize the axion-insulator phase in MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$(Bi${}_2$Te${}_3$)${}_n$ family: a perspective
• Dissipationless Layertronics in Axion Insulator $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_4$

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Dissipationless Layertronics in Axion Insulator $\mathrm{MnB}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_4$
• Axion Insulator State in Hundred-Nanometer-Thick Magnetic Topological Insulator Sandwich Heterostructures
• Altermagnetism-Induced Parity Anomaly in Weak Topological Insulators
• Layer Zero-Line Modes in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulators
• High spin axion insulator
• Signature of Parity Anomaly: Crossover from One Half to Integer Quantized Hall Conductance in a Finite Magnetic Field
• Quarter-quantized thermal Hall effect with parity anomaly
• Evidence for Half-Quantized Chiral Edge Current in a C = 1/2 Parity Anomaly State
• Half-Quantized Hall Metal and Marginal Metal in Disordered Magnetic Topological Insulators
• Disordered Parity Anomalous Semimetal