Magnetic topological insulator MnBi6 Te10 with a zero-field ferromagnetic state and gapped Dirac surface states

• Magnetic topological insulators (TIs) with nontrivial topological electronic structure and broken time-reversal symmetry exhibit various exotic topological quantum phenomena. The realization of such exotic phenomena at high temperature is one of the central topics in this area. We reveal that MnBi6Te10 is a magnetic TI with an antiferromagnetic ground state below 10.8 K whose nontrivial topology is manifested by Dirac-like surface states. The ferromagnetic axion insulator state with Z4=2 emerges once spins are polarized at a field as low as 0.1 T, accompanied with saturated anomalous Hall resistivity up to 10 K. Such a ferromagnetic state is preserved even with an external field down to zero at 2 K. Theoretical calculations indicate that the few-layer ferromagnetic MnBi6Te10 is also topologically nontrivial with a nonzero Chern number. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments further reveal three types of Dirac surface states arising from different terminations on the cleavage surfaces, one of which has insulating behavior with an energy gap of ∼28 meV at the Dirac point. These outstanding features suggest that MnBi6Te10 is a promising system to realize various topological quantum effects at zero field and high temperature.

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NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

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