MnBi2Te4: A Topological Quantum Material Showing Promise for Technological Advances
First Antiferromagnetic Topological Quantum Material Discovered by Scientists
Excerpts and salient points ~
+ The significance of this discovery for the scientific community is huge: An MTI crystal has an edge state on its surface that may realize a quantized Hall conductivity even without an external magnetic field. In addition, the fabrication of an AFMTI makes an important contribution to the booming field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. The new research area of magnetic van der Waals materials could also benefit from novel two-dimensional ferromagnets.
“We witness the emergence of a new family of magnetic topological insulators that rely on intrinsic magnetization rather than on the magnetic doping approach. There is a lot of competition among the teams worldwide, which has also triggered a flood of new publications on the subject,” says Jun.-Prof. Dr. Anna Isaeva, referring to three subsequent articles of her own team.
+ Quantum materials are worldwide in the focus of research activities within diverse scientific disciplines. This material class appears to be increasingly complex and rich in physical phenomena such as magnetism, superconductivity or topology, and is therefore extremely promising for technological advances in the fields of information processing, sensors, computing and many more. Also at TU Dresden, quantum materials research plays an important role. With the establishment of the Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat – Complexity and Topology in Quantum Materials together with the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg, the field has gained even more impact.
+ In a large international cooperation of over 40 scientists from over 20 research institutions, Dr. Isaeva’s team is significantly involved in the discovery of a new, promising quantum material. Together with Dr. Alexander Zeugner from the Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, the scientists at TU Dresden developed the first crystal growing technique for the first intrinsically magnetic topological material: manganese-bismuth telluride (MnBi2Te4) and characterized the physical properties of the crystals. The research cooperation was able to prove both in theory, led by the Donostia International Physics Center in Spain, and in spectroscopic experiments, headed by the University of Würzburg, that MnBi2Te4 is the first antiferromagnetic topological insulator (AFMTI) below its Néel temperature.
Content may have been edited for style and clarity.
