Low-temperature magneto-transport in topological insulator-ferromagnetic insulator heterostructures

ORAL

Abstract

The spin polarized surface states of a topological insulator (TI) have potential for topological spintronics applications wherein the surface states are used for electrically detecting and manipulating the magnetization of a ferromagnetic (FM) material. Heterostructures that interface a TI with a FM insulator are ideal in this context since they isolate the charge current to the topological insulator, thus allowing a clean probe of any phenomena related to spin-charge conversion between the TI surface states and the FM material. We use molecular beam epitaxy to deposit crystalline Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$ films on high-quality yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films [Wang \textit{et al}., Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{117}, 076601 (2016)] and report on the magneto-transport properties of these heterostructures at low temperature (400 mK \textless $T$ \textless 4.2 K). Our measurements show evidence for a magnetic coupling between the FM insulator and the TI thin film.

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Authors

  • James Kally

    The Pennsylvania State University, Dept. of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University

  • Tao Liu

    Dept. of Physics, Colorado State University

  • Hailong Wang

    Dept. of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University

  • Danielle Hickey

    Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, University of Minnesota

  • K. Andre Mkhoyan

    Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

  • Mingzhong Wu

    Dept. of Physics, Colorado State University

  • Anthony Richardella

    Dept. of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State University

  • Nitin Samarth

    Pennsylvania State University, The Pennsylvania State University, Dept. of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State Univ