Anti-site defect-induced disorder in compensated topological magnet MnBi2-xSbxTe4

Felix Lüpke; Marek Kolmer; Jiaqiang Yan; Hao Chang; Paolo Vilmercati; Hanno H. Weitering; Wonhee Ko; An Ping Li

doi:10.1038/s43246-023-00408-w

Anti-site defect-induced disorder in compensated topological magnet MnBi_2-xSb_xTe₄

Felix Lüpke, Marek Kolmer, Jiaqiang Yan, Hao Chang, Paolo Vilmercati, Hanno H. Weitering, Wonhee Ko, An Ping Li

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

The gapped Dirac-like surface states of compensated magnetic topological insulator MnBi_2-xSb_xTe₄ (MBST) are a promising host for exotic quantum phenomena such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulating state. However, it has become clear that atomic defects undermine the stabilization of such quantum phases as they lead to spatial variations in the surface state gap and doping levels. The large number of possible defect configurations in MBST make studying the influence of individual defects virtually impossible. Here, we present a statistical analysis of the nanoscale effect of defects in MBST with x=0.64, by scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy. We identify (Bi,Sb)_Mn anti-site defects to be the main source of the observed doping fluctuations, leading towards the formation of nanoscale charge puddles and effectively closing the transport gap. Our findings will guide further optimization of this material system via defect engineering, to enable exploitation of its promising properties.

Original language	English
Article number	82
Journal	Communications Materials
Volume	4
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43246-023-00408-w
State	Published - Dec 2023

Funding

We acknowledge the assistance of James Burns and Jonathan Poplawsky for focused ion beam milling of the STM tips. We acknowledge Mao-Hua Du for helpful discussions. This work was supported by Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science User Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. J. Y acknowledges support from the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. A.-P.L. acknowledges support from the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Quantum Science Center. F.L. acknowledges funding from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation through a Feodor Lynen postdoctoral fellowship, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) within the Priority Programme SPP 2244 (project no. 443416235) and the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy within Bavaria’s High-Tech Agenda Project “Bausteine für das Quantencomputing auf Basis topologischer Materialien mit experimentellen und theoretischen Ansätzen”. M.K. acknowledges support from the U.S. DOE, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering Division at the Ames National Laboratory, which is operated for the U.S. DOE by Iowa State University under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358.

Funders	Funder number
Ames National Laboratory
Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences
National Quantum Information Science Research Centers
Quantum Science Center
U.S. Department of Energy
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
Office of Science
Basic Energy Sciences
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Iowa State University	DE-AC02-07CH11358
Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	443416235
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Wirtschaft, Infrastruktur, Verkehr und Technologie

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abstract = "The gapped Dirac-like surface states of compensated magnetic topological insulator MnBi2-xSbxTe4 (MBST) are a promising host for exotic quantum phenomena such as the quantum anomalous Hall effect and axion insulating state. However, it has become clear that atomic defects undermine the stabilization of such quantum phases as they lead to spatial variations in the surface state gap and doping levels. The large number of possible defect configurations in MBST make studying the influence of individual defects virtually impossible. Here, we present a statistical analysis of the nanoscale effect of defects in MBST with x=0.64, by scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy. We identify (Bi,Sb)Mn anti-site defects to be the main source of the observed doping fluctuations, leading towards the formation of nanoscale charge puddles and effectively closing the transport gap. Our findings will guide further optimization of this material system via defect engineering, to enable exploitation of its promising properties.",

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AU - Vilmercati, Paolo

AU - Weitering, Hanno H.

AU - Ko, Wonhee

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Anti-site defect-induced disorder in compensated topological magnet MnBi_2-xSb_xTe₄

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