Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 1, 2025

Optimizing Magnetic Force Microscopy Resolution and Sensitivity to Visualize Nanoscale Magnetic Domains
Published on: July 20, 2022
Switchable Anomalous Hall Effects in Polar-Stacked 2D Antiferromagnet MnBi2Te4
Tengfei Cao1, Ding-Fu Shao1, Kai Huang1
1Department of Physics and Astronomy & Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0299, United States.
Abstract:
van der Waals (vdW) assembly of two-dimensional (2D) materials allows polar layer stacking to realize novel properties switchable by the induced electric polarization. Here, based on symmetry analyses and density-functional calculations, we explore the emergence of the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in antiferromagnetic MnBi2Te4 films assembled by polar layer stacking. We demonstrate that breaking P̂T̂ symmetry in an MnBi2Te4 bilayer produces a magnetoelectric effect and a spontaneous AHE switchable by electric polarization. We find that reversible polarization at one of the interfaces in a three-layer MnBi2Te4 film drives a metal-insulator transition, as well as switching between the AHE and quantum AHE (QAHE). Finally, we predict that engineering interlayer polarization in a three-layer MnBi2Te4 film allows converting MnBi2Te4 from a trivial insulator to a Chern insulator. Overall, our work emphasizes the topological properties in 2D vdW antiferromagnets induced by polar layer stacking, which do not exist in a bulk material.
More Related Videos
09:06Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
10:36Advanced Experimental Methods for Low-temperature Magnetotransport Measurement of Novel Materials
Published on: January 21, 2016
Related Concept Videos
π Electron Effects on Chemical Shift: Overview
Paramagnetism
Ferromagnetism
The Hall Effect
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
Valence Bond Theory