Anomalous Magneto Optic Effects from an Antiferromagnet Topological-Insulator Heterostructure

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that antiferromagnet-topological insulator heterostructures can exhibit magneto-optic Kerr effects due to proximity coupling, with potential applications in low-power spintronics and magneto-optic devices.

Contribution

It reveals that antiferromagnet-topological insulator heterostructures can produce measurable magneto-optic Kerr effects through proximity coupling, a phenomenon not previously observed.

Findings

Tiny Kerr rotation (~μdeg) from AFM-TI heterostructures

Resonance enhancement of Kerr signal by 5 orders of magnitude

Electrical switching of Kerr rotation with minimal energy variation

Abstract

Materials with no net magnetization are generally not magneto-optically active. While this is individually true for a collinear antiferromagnet (AFM) and a topological insulator (TI), it is shown here that the magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) emerges when the TI and AFM films are proximity coupled. Because of the lack of macroscopic magnetization, the AFM only couples to the spin of one of the TI's surfaces breaking time-reversal and inversion symmetry -- which leads to a tiny $\mu$deg MOKE signal. This small MOKE can be easily enhanced by 5 orders of magnitude, via cavity resonance, by optimizing the AFM and TI film thicknesses on the substrate. For slightly off-resonant structures, a 6 deg Kerr rotation can be electrically switched on by varying the Fermi energy. This requires less than 20 meV, which is encouraging for low power spintronics and magneto-optic devices. We further show that this simple structure is easily resilient to 5% material growth error.