Quantized topological magnetoelectric effect of the zero-plateau quantum anomalous Hall state

Jing Wang, Biao Lian, Xiao-Liang Qi, Shou-Cheng Zhang
2015 Physical Review B  
Topological magnetoelectric effect in a three-dimensional topological insulator is a novel phenomenon, where an electric field induces a magnetic field in the same direction, with a universal coefficient of proportionality quantized in units of e^2/2h. Here we propose that the topological magnetoelectric effect can be realized in the zero-plateau quantum anomalous Hall state of magnetic topological insulators or ferromagnet-topological insulator heterostructure. The finite-size effect is also
more » ... udied numerically, where the magnetoelectric coefficient is shown to converge to a quantized value when the thickness of topological insulator film increases. We further propose a device setup to eliminate the non-topological contributions from the side surface.
doi:10.1103/physrevb.92.081107 fatcat:ynpxehyy4jewxag7meeyrlfrvy