Quantized and half-quantized Anomalous Hall effect induced by in-plane magnetic field

TL;DR

This paper predicts that in-plane magnetic fields can induce quantized and half-quantized anomalous Hall effects in certain 2D materials with strong spin-orbit coupling, supported by theoretical models and first-principles calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for inducing quantized Hall effects via in-plane magnetic fields in non-magnetic 2D systems, supported by analytical and first-principles modeling.

Findings

Quantized and half-quantized conductance observed in Sb2Te3 thin films.

Strong in-plane magnetic field (>20 T) needed for effect.

Low temperature (<100 mK) required for observation.

Abstract

In this paper we propose that, quantized and nearly half-quantized intrinsic anomalous Hall effect can be induced by in-plane external magnetic field through the Zeeman coupling in non-magnetic 2D systems with sizeable spin-orbital coupling but without two-fold rotational symmetry. An analytical result is derived for 2D electron gas model with $C_{3v}$ symmetry. Based on the $\boldsymbol{k\cdot p}$ Hamiltonian derived from first principle calculations, we find that quantized and nearly half-quantized conductance can be observed in $\mathrm{Sb_2Te_3}$ thin film in the clean limit with strong in-plane magnetic field $B>20\ \mathrm{T}$ and low temperature $T<100\ \mathrm{mK}$.