Tunneling magnetoresistance on the surface of a topological insulator with periodic magnetic modulations

Abstract

We investigate the band and transport features of Dirac electrons on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator under the modulation of a periodic exchange field provided by an array of ferromagnetic insulating (FI) stripes. The Dirac point is shifted (unchanged) by the superlattice when the magnetizations of adjacent FI stripes are parallel (antiparallel). For a finite magnetic superlattice, there exists a full transmission gap for both the parallel and antiparallel configurations. When the two kinds of transmission gaps have no overlap, a large magnetoresistance ratio with a tunable sign can be achieved.