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Title: Observation of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator to Anderson Insulator Quantum Phase Transition and its Scaling Behavior

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [2]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States); Penn State University
  2. The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  3. Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
  4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Fundamental insight into the nature of the quantum phase transition from a superconductor to an insulator in two dimensions, or from one plateau to the next or to an insulator in quantum Hall effect, has been revealed through the study of its scaling behavior. Here, we report on the experimental observation of a quantum phase transition from a quantum-anomalous-Hall (QAH) insulator to an Anderson insulator in a magnetic topological insulator by tuning the chemical potential. Our experiment demonstrates the existence of scaling behavior from which we extract the critical exponent for this quantum phase transition. Furthermore, we expect that our work will motivate much further investigation of many properties of quantum phase transition in this new context.

Research Organization:
The Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0005042
OSTI ID:
1489117
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 117; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Quantum‐Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra‐Low‐Carrier‐Density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level journal June 2019
Magnetic topological insulators journal January 2019
Highly-ordered wide bandgap materials for quantized anomalous Hall and magnetoelectric effects journal April 2017
Two-dimensional Weyl half-semimetal and tunable quantum anomalous Hall effect journal August 2019
Magnetic resonance induced pseudoelectric field and giant current response in axion insulators journal August 2019
Systematics of electronic and magnetic properties in the transition metal doped Sb 2 Te 3 quantum anomalous Hall platform journal April 2018
Topological quantum phase transition in magnetic topological insulator upon magnetization rotation journal October 2018
Quantum Anomalous Parity Hall Effect in Magnetically Disordered Topological Insulator Films journal July 2019
Systematics of electronic and magnetic properties in the transition metal doped $Sb_{2}Te_{3}$ quantum anomalous Hall platform text January 2018
Quantum-Hall to Insulator Transition in Ultra-low-carrier-density Topological Insulator Films and a Hidden Phase of the Zeroth Landau Level text January 2019
Quantum Anomalous Parity Hall Effect in Magnetically Disordered Topological Insulator Films text January 2019
Magnetic-Resonance-Induced Pseudo-electric Field and Giant Current Response in Axion Insulators text January 2019