Atomic scale quantum anomalous hall effect in monolayer graphene/MnBi₂Te₄ heterostructure

The two-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect is direct evidence of non-trivial Berry curvature topology in condensed matter physics. Searching for QAH in 2D materials, particularly with simplified fabrication methods, poses a significant challenge in future applications. Despite numerous theoretical works proposed for the QAH effect with C = 2 in graphene, neglecting magnetism sources such as proper substrate effects lacks experimental evidence. In this work, we propose the QAH effect in graphene/MnBi₂Te₄ (MBT) heterostructure based on density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. The monolayer MBT introduces spin-orbital coupling, Zeeman exchange field, and Kekulé distortion as a substrate effect into graphene, resulting in QAH with C = 1 in the heterostructure. Our effective Hamiltonian further presents a rich phase diagram that has not been studied previously. Our work provides a new and practical way to explore the QAH effect in monolayer graphene and the magnetic topological phases by the flexibility of MBT family materials.