Prediction of High-Temperature Half Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in a Semi-magnetic Topological Insulator of MnBi$_2$Te$_4$/Sb$_2$Te$_3$

TL;DR

This paper proposes a MnBi$_2$Te$_4$/Sb$_2$Te$_3$ heterostructure as an ideal platform to realize high-temperature half quantum anomalous Hall effect, analyzing the roles of gapped and gapless Dirac bands through Berry curvature.

Contribution

It introduces a semi-magnetic topological insulator platform that achieves HQAH at higher temperatures and clarifies the microscopic mechanisms involving surface bands.

Findings

HQAH effect observed at ~20 K, enhanced to 67 K with Cr doping

Gapped surface bands contribute to Hall conductance only when overlapping with chemical potential

Gapless bands are the main contributors to the HQAH conductance, ensuring quantization

Abstract

The classic Thouless-Kohmoto-Nightingale-Nijs theorem dictates that a single electron band of a lattice can only harbor an integer quantum Hall conductance as a multiple of e^2/2h, while recent studies have pointed to the emergence of half quantum anomalous Hall (HQAH) effect, though the underlying microscopic mechanisms remain controversial. Here we propose an ideal platform of MnBi$_2$Te$_4$/Sb$_2$Te$_3$ that allows not only to realize the HQAH effect at much higher temperatures, but also to critically assess the different contributions of the gapped and gapless Dirac bands. We first show that the top surface bands of the Sb$_2$Te$_3$ film become gapped, while the bottom surface bands remain gapless due to proximity coupling with the MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ overlayer. Next we show that such a semi-magnetic topological insulator harbors the HQAH effect at ~20 K, with Cr doping enhancing it to as high as 67 K, driven by large magnetic anisotropy and strong magnetic coupling constants that raise the Curie temperature. Our detailed Berry curvature analysis further helps to reveal that, whereas the gapped surface bands can contribute to the Hall conductance when the chemical potential is tuned to overlap with the bands, these bands have no net contribution when the chemical potential is in the gapped region, leaving the gapless bands to be the sole contributor to the HQAH conductance. Counterintuitively, the part of the gapless bands within the gapped region of the top surface bands have no net contribution, thereby ensuring the plateau nature of the Hall conductance.