Abstract
Relying on the magnetism induced by the proximity effect in heterostructures of topological insulators and magnetic insulators is one of the promising routes to achieve the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Here, we investigate heterostructures of Bi2Te3 and Fe3O4. By growing two different types of heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy, Fe3O4 on Bi2Te3 and Bi2Te3 on Fe3O4, we explore differences in chemical stability, crystalline quality, electronic structure, and transport properties. We find the heterostructure Bi2Te3 on Fe3O4 to be a more viable approach, with transport signatures in agreement with a gap opening in the topological surface states.
Highlights
Since its initial theoretical prediction,[1] topological insulators (TIs) such as the prototypical Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 have been extensively studied due to the multitude of features stemming from their topological surface states
Many of the recent studies on TIs have concentrated on breaking the time reversal symmetry by introducing magnetic order in the system as this can lead to exotic phenomena such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE)
Requisite to this is the opening of a gap in the topological surface states, which can be experimentally achieved either by magnetic doping of the TI2–5 or by making use of the magnetic proximity effect at the interface between a TI and a magnetic layer.[6,7,8,9]
Summary
Since its initial theoretical prediction,[1] topological insulators (TIs) such as the prototypical Bi2Te3 and Bi2Se3 have been extensively studied due to the multitude of features stemming from their topological surface states. Earlier studies of interfaces between TIs and ferromagnets focused on the use of Fe as an adlayer.[10,11,12,13,14] several studies found that the interface of Fe/TI is not clean and that the Fe atoms penetrate into the TI layer, forming an interface layer containing FeTe or FeSe.[13,14] Since any possible applications of these heterostructures for spintronic devices rely on well-defined interfaces, it is crucial to have a sharp interface, without chemical reactions between the layers For this purpose, magnetic transition metal oxide insulators are promising candidates due to their relatively inert nature when compared to the magnetic transition metals themselves. We present the transport properties of these heterostructures and discuss the findings
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