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Research Article

Spin-flop transition and Zeeman effect of defect-localized bound states in the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4

Guojian Qian1,§, Mengzhu Shi3,§, Hui Chen1,2,§( ), Shiyu Zhu1, Jiawei Hu1, Zihao Huang1, Yuan Huang4, Xian-Hui Chen3, Hong-Jun Gao1,2( )
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory, Dongguan 523808, China
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Physics, and Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Advanced Research Institute of Multidisciplinary Science, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China

§ Guojian Qian, Mengzhu Shi, and Hui Chen contributed equally to this work.

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Graphical Abstract

A bound state localized around Mn-Bi antisite is observed by scanning tunneling microscope. Remarkably, the bound state shows the spin-flop transition and Zeeman effect at magnetic fields perpendicular to the sample surface. The Zeeman effect demonstrates the magnetic moment of the intrinsic Mn-Bi antisite defect, while the spin-flop transition indicates that the defect state correlates to the magnetic surface state of bulk MnBi2Te4.

Abstract

The correlation of surface impurity states with the antiferromagnetic ground states is crucial for understanding the formation of the topological surface state in the antiferromagnetic topological insulators MnBi2Te4. By using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we observed a localized bound state around the Mn-Bi antisite defect at the Te-terminated surface of the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4. When applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the surface (Bz) from –1.5 to 3.0 T, the bound state shifts linearly to a lower energy with increasing Bz, which is attributed to the Zeeman effect. Remarkably, when applying a large range of Bz from –8.0 to 8.0 T, the magnetic field induced reorientation of surface magnetic moments results in an abrupt jump in the local density of states (LDOS), which is characterized by LDOS-change-ratio dσ~/dB quantitatively. Interestingly, two asymmetric critical field, –2.0 and 4.0 T determined by the two peaks in dσ~/dB are observed, which is consistent with simulated results according to a Mills-model, describing a surface spin flop transition (SSF). Our results provide a new flatform for studying the interplay between magnetic order and topological phases in magnetic topological materials.

Keywords

antiferromagnetic topological insulatorsMnBi2Te4scanning tunneling microscopeMills modelsurface spin flop transition

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Nano Research
Volume 16 Issue 1,
January 2023
Pages 1101-1106
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-022-4685-8
Cite this article:
Qian G, Shi M, Chen H, et al. Spin-flop transition and Zeeman effect of defect-localized bound states in the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4. Nano Research, 2023, 16(1): 1101-1106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-4685-8
Topics:
Scanning tunneling microscopy

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Received: 24 March 2022
Revised: 28 May 2022
Accepted: 21 June 2022
Published: 10 August 2022
© Tsinghua University Press 2022
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