Intrinsic magnetic topological insulators in van der Waals layered MnBi$_2$Te$_4$-family materials

Abstract

The interplay of magnetism and topology is a key research subject in condensed matter physics and material science, which offers great opportunities to explore emerging new physics, like the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect, axion electrodynamics and Majorana fermions. However, these exotic physical effects have rarely been realized in experiment, due to the lacking of suitable working materials. Here we predict that van der Waals layered MnBi$_2$Te$_4$-family materials show two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetism in the single layer and three-dimensional (3D) $A$-type antiferromagnetism in the bulk, which could serve as a next-generation material platform for the state-of-art research. Remarkably, we predict extremely rich topological quantum effects with outstanding features in an experimentally available material MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, including a 3D antiferromagnetic topological insulator with the long-sought topological axion states, the type-II magnetic Weyl semimetal (WSM) with simply one pair of Weyl points, and the high-temperature intrinsic QAH effect. These striking predictions, if proved experimentally, could profoundly transform future research and technology of topological quantum physics.