Local optical control of ferromagnetism and chemical potential in a topological insulator
Abstract
Ferromagnetic topological insulators (TIs) have promise for applications in spintronics, metrology, and quantum computing. However, TI materials are fragile and often incompatible with nanofabrication techniques. Here, we demonstrate persistent, micron-scale optical control of both magnetization and chemical potential in Cr-(Bi,Sb)2Te3grown on SrTiO3. We show that this system is uniquely positioned to enable arbitrary routing of the quantized edge states recently discovered in magnetic TIs. We also use Kerr and photocurrent microscopies to image magnetic inversion dynamics,p-njunctions, and magnetic recordings that we make in these materials. This work may enable dynamic, reconfigurable control of 1D quantum channels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Sep 12, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1073/pnas.1713458114
Entities
People
- Andrew L Yeats
- Anthony Richardella
- Bob B. Buckley
- David Awschalom
- Nitin Samarth
- Peter J Mintun
- Yu Pan
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Argonne National Laboratory
- Division of Materials Research
- National Science Foundation
- Office of Naval Research
- Pennsylvania State University
- University of Chicago