Capacitive scheme to detect the topological magnetoelectric effect

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new capacitive measurement scheme to directly detect the topological magnetoelectric effect in 3D topological insulators, addressing challenges posed by disorder and aiming for experimental verification.

Contribution

It introduces a novel capacitive approach for direct TME measurement and analyzes its robustness against charge and spin disorder in real devices.

Findings

Proposes a capacitive measurement scheme for TME detection

Analyzes the effect's precision in disordered real devices

Provides a pathway for experimental verification of TME

Abstract

The topological magnetoelectric effect (TME) is a defining property of three-dimensional $\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ topological insulators that was predicted on theoretical grounds more than a decade ago, but has still not been directly measured. In this Letter we propose a strategy for direct measurement of the TME and discuss the precision of the effect in real devices with charge and spin disorder.