Electrically tunable Dirac-point resonance induced by a nanomagnet absorbed on the topological insulator surface

Abstract

We investigate the effect of spin-inelastic scattering of Dirac electrons off a high-spin nanomagnet adsorbed on a topological insulator (TI) surface, in which transitions of the nanomagnet between its internal magnetic levels are taken into account, beyond the classic spin theory. It is found that the presence of magnetic anisotropy of nanomagnets can result in a Dirac-point resonance peak in local density of states. It can significantly modify the topologically protected Dirac surface-state spectrum at the Dirac point, quite different from previously reported low-energy resonances. Furthermore, we propose to tune electrically the appearance of the Dirac-point resonance peak and its height by use of the spin-flip torque effect. This provides an approach to engineer the Dirac cone and tune the Dirac electron properties on the TI surface in the absence of an external magnetic field.