English

Coexisting of Quantum Hall and Quantum Anomalous Hall phases in Disordered $\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}$

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics 2021-12-15 v2

Abstract

In most cases, to observe quantized Hall plateaux, an external magnetic field is applied in intrinsic magnetic topological insulators MnBi2Te4\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}. Nevertheless, whether the nonzero Chern number (C0C\neq 0) phase is a quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state, or a quantum Hall (QH) state, or a mixing state of both is still a puzzle, especially for the recently observed C=2C=2 phase [Deng \textit{et al}., Science \textbf{367}, 895 (2020)]. In this Letter, we propose a physical picture based on the Anderson localization to understand the observed Hall plateaux in disordered MnBi2Te4\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}. Rather good consistency between the experimental and numerical results confirms that the bulk states are localized in the absence of a magnetic field and a QAH edge state emerges with C=1C=1. However, under a strong magnetic field, the lowest Landau band formed with the localized bulk states, survives disorder, together with the QAH edge state, leading to a C=2C=2 phase. Eventually, we present a phase diagram of a disordered MnBi2Te4\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4} which indicates more coexistence states of QAH and QH to be verified by future experiments.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2107.04752,
  title  = {Coexisting of Quantum Hall and Quantum Anomalous Hall phases in Disordered $\mathrm{MnBi_2Te_4}$},
  author = {Hailong Li and Chui-Zhen Chen and Hua Jiang and X. C. Xie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.04752},
  year   = {2021}
}