Local Optical Control Of Ferromagnetism And Chemical Potential In A Topological Insulator

in house research highlight

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. We have developed a technique that enables persistent, micron-scale optical control of both magnetization and chemical potential in Cr-(Bi,Sb)2Te3 grown by MBE on SrTiO3. 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-n junctions, and magnetic recordings that we make in these materials. This work may enable dynamic, reconfigurable control of 1D quantum channels.

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