We demonstrate a new method of designing 2D functional magnetic topological heterostructure (HS) by exploiting the vdw heterostructure (vdw-HS) through combining 2D magnet CrI3 and 2D materials (Ge/Sb) to realize new 2D topological system with nonzero Chern number (C=1) and chiral edge state. The nontrivial topology originates primarily from the CrI3 layer while the non-magnetic element induces the charge transfer process and proximity enhanced spin-orbit coupling. Due to these unique properties, our topological magnetic vdw-HS overcomes the weak magnetization via proximity effect in previous designs since the magnetization and topology coexist in the same magnetic layer. Specifically, our systems of bilayer CrI3/Sb and trilayer CrI3/Sb/CrI3 exhibit different topological ground state ranging from antiferromagnetic topological crystalline insulator (CM= 2) to a QAHE. These nontrivial topological transition is shown to be switchable in a trilayer configuration due to the magnetic switching from antiferromagnetism to ferromangetism in the presence an external perpendicular electric field with value as small as 0.05 eV/A. Thus our study proposes a realistic system to design switchable magnetic topological device with electric field.
@article{arxiv.2003.05840,
title = {Designing Magnetic Topological van der Waals Heterostructure},
author = {Anh Pham and Panchapakesan Ganesh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2003.05840},
year = {2020}
}