Non-reciprocal charge transport in an intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation and control of non-reciprocal charge transport in the intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4, highlighting the role of chirality and potential for spintronic applications.

Contribution

It demonstrates magnetically switchable, edge-sensitive non-reciprocal charge transport in MnBi2Te4 and shows how gate voltage and layer number can tune this effect.

Findings

Non-reciprocal resistance observed at chiral edges

Magnetically switchable and edge position sensitive

Gate voltage effectively tunes the non-reciprocal resistance

Abstract

Symmetries, quantum geometries and electronic correlations are among the most important ingredients of condensed matters, and lead to nontrivial phenomena in experiments, for example, non-reciprocal charge transport. Here we report the non-reciprocal charge transport in the intrinsic magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4. The current direction relevant resistance is observed at chiral edges, which is magnetically switchable, edge position sensitive and septuple layer number controllable. Applying gate voltage can effectively tune the non-reciprocal resistance. The observation and manipulation of non-reciprocal charge transport indicate the fundamental role of chirality in charge transport of MnBi2Te4, and pave ways to develop van der Waals spintronic devices by chirality engineering.