Abstract
A monolayer of transition metal trichalcogenides has received a lot of attention as potential two dimensional magnetic materials. The system has a honeycomb structure of transition metal ions, where both spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation effect play an important role. Here, motivated by these transition metal series with effective doping or mixed valence case, we propose the possible realization of magnetic Chern insulators at quarter filled honeycomb lattice. We show that the interplay of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation opens a wide region of ferromagnetic Chern insulating phases in between metals and normal insulators. Within the mean field approximation, we present the phase diagram of a quarter filled Kane-Mele Hubbard model and also discuss the effects of Rashba spin-orbit coupling and nearest neighbor interactions on it.
Highlights
The effect of spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in the electronic structures of solids
We study the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and electron correlation motivated by transition-metal trichalcogenide (TMTC) materials with 4d and 5d transition metal ions
We have studied the interplay of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and onsite Coulomb interactions at quarter filled honeycomb lattice and predicted possible phases realizable in series of transition metal trichalcogenides under optimal doping
Summary
The effect of spin-orbit coupling plays an important role in the electronic structures of solids. We propose possible realization of Chern insulators in two dimensional van der Waals materials, especially in transition metal trichalcogenides. The transition metal compounds possess large spin-orbit coupling and strong electron correlations compared to the case of graphene. These monolayers of TMTC series open a whole zoo of new exotic phases in two dimensional honeycomb lattice allowing possible control of both electron interaction and spin-orbit coupling. We investigate the stability of these phases in the presence of nearest-neighbor interaction and Rashba spin-orbit coupling
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