Magnetic extension as an efficient method for realizing the quantum anomalous hall state in topological insulators

Abstract

A new efficient method is proposed for inducing magnetism on the surface of a topological insulator through the deposition of a thin film of an isostructural magnetic insulator whose atomic composition is maximally close to that of the topological material. Such a design prevents the formation of a strong interface potential between subsystems. As a result, the topological state freely penetrates into the magnetic region, where it interacts with the exchange field and gets significantly split at the Dirac point. It is shown that the application of this approach to thin films of a tetradymite-like topological insulator allows realizing the quantum anomalous Hall state with a band gap of several tens of meV.