Exchange-biased quantum anomalous Hall effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the realization and control of the quantum anomalous Hall effect in a magnetic topological insulator through exchange bias, enabling potential advancements in dissipationless spintronic devices.

Contribution

The study introduces a method to manipulate the QAH state using exchange bias from an antiferromagnetic insulator, a novel approach in topological quantum physics.

Findings

Successful realization of exchange-biased QAH effect in Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3

Control of exchange bias magnitude and sign via field training

Identification of strong interfacial exchange coupling via polarized neutron reflectometry

Abstract

The quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect is characterized by a dissipationless chiral edge state with a quantized Hall resistance at zero magnetic field. Manipulating the QAH state is of great importance in both the understanding of topological quantum physics and the implementation of dissipationless electronics. Here, we realized the QAH effect in the magnetic topological insulator Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3 (CBST) grown on an uncompensated antiferromagnetic insulator Al-doped Cr2O3. Through polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR), we find a strong exchange coupling between CBST and Al-Cr2O3 surface spins fixing interfacial magnetic moments perpendicular to the film plane. The interfacial coupling results in an exchange-biased QAH effect. We further demonstrate that the magnitude and sign of the exchange bias can be effectively controlled using a field training process to set the magnetization of the Al-Cr2O3 layer. Our work demonstrates the use of the exchange bias effect to effectively manipulate the QAH state, opening new possibilities in QAH-based spintronics.