Direct measurement of proximity-induced magnetism at the interface between a topological insulator and a ferromagnet.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27344976.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12014 and PMC identifier 4931222.
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Abstract
When a topological insulator (TI) is in contact with a ferromagnet, both time-reversal and inversion symmetries are broken at the interface. An energy gap is formed at the TI surface, and its electrons gain a net magnetic moment through short-range exchange interactions. Magnetic TIs can host various exotic quantum phenomena, such as massive Dirac fermions, Majorana fermions, the quantum anomalous Hall effect and chiral edge currents along the domain boundaries. However, selective measurement of induced magnetism at the buried interface has remained a challenge. Using magnetic second-harmonic generation, we directly probe both the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetizations induced at the interface between the ferromagnetic insulator (FMI) EuS and the three-dimensional TI Bi2Se3. Our findings not only allow characterizing magnetism at the TI-FMI interface but also lay the groundwork for imaging magnetic domains and domain boundaries at the magnetic TI surfaces.