Model Hamiltonian for the Quantum Anomalous Hall State in Iron-Halogenide

Abstract

We examine quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) insulators with intrinsic magnetism displaying quantized Hall conductance at zero magnetic fields. The spin-momentum locking of the topological edge stats promises QAH insulators with great potential in device applications in the field of spintronics. Here, we generalize Haldane’s model on the honeycomb lattice to a more realistic two-orbital case without the artificial real-space complex hopping. Instead, we introduce an intraorbital coupling, stemming directly from the local spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Our dxy/dx2–y2 model may be viewed as a generalization of the bismuthene px/py-model for correlated d-orbitals. It promises a large SOC gap, featuring a high operating temperature. This two-orbital model nicely explains the low-energy excitation and the topology of two-dimensional ferromagnetic iron-halogenides. Furthermore, we find that electronic correlations can drive the QAH states to a c = 0 phase, in which every band carries a nonzero Chern number. Our work not only provides a realistic QAH model, but also generalizes the nontrivial band topology to correlated orbitals, which demonstrates an exciting topological phase transition driven by Coulomb repulsions. Both the model and the material candidates provide excellent platforms for future study of the interplay between electronic correlations and nontrivial band topology.