The recent discovery of antiferromagnetic (AFM) topological insulator (TI) MnBi2Te4 has triggered great research efforts on exploring novel magnetic topological physics. Based on first-principles calculations, we find that the manipulation of magnetic orientation and order not only significantly affects material symmetries and orbital hybridizations, but also results in variant new magnetic topological phases in MnBi2Te4. We thus predict a series of unusual topological quantum phase transitions that are magnetically controllable in the material, including phase transitions from AFM TI to AFM mirror topological crystalline insulator, from type-II to type-I topological Weyl semimetal, and from axion insulator to Chern insulator. The findings open new opportunities for future research and applications of magnetic topological materials.
@article{arxiv.1905.00642,
title = {Magnetically Controllable Topological Quantum Phase Transitions in Antiferromagnetic Topological Insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$},
author = {Jiaheng Li and Chong Wang and Zetao Zhang and Bing-Lin Gu and Wenhui Duan and Yong Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1905.00642},
year = {2019}
}