Magnetic Impurities on the Surface of a Topological Insulator
Open accessAbstract
The surface states of a topological insulator are described by an emergent relativistic massless Dirac equation in 2 + 1 dimensions. In contrast with graphene, there is an odd number of Dirac points, and the electron spin is directly coupled to the momentum. We show that a magnetic impurity opens up a local gap and suppresses the local density of states. Furthermore, the Dirac electronic states mediate an RKKY interaction among the magnetic impurities which is always ferromagnetic, whenever the chemical potential lies near the Dirac point. Through this exchange mechanism, magnetic atoms uniformly deposited on the surface of a topological insulator could naturally form a ferromagnetically ordered film. These effects can be directly measured in STM experiments. We also study the case of quenched disorder through a renormalization group analysis.
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In topological insulators, surface-state electrons are confined to two-dimensional Dirac cones, and interactions between deposited impurities are suggested to be mediated over many nanometres.
“In topological insulators, surface-state electrons are naturally confined to the surface in two-dimensional Dirac cones, and it is suggested that interactions between deposited impurities can be mediated over many nanometres (see the illustration in Fig. 4c; refs 11,26).”
From A topological insulator surface under strong Coulomb, magnetic and disorder perturbations (2011) · cites this paper as [26]
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Cites
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Topological insulators and superconductors
Qi, X.-L., & Zhang, S.-C. (2011) · Reviews of Modern Physics · doi:10.1103/revmodphys.83.1057 · Cited by 14,394 · see citing works
Self-citationChen, Y. L., Analytis, J. G., Chu, J.-H., Liu, Z. K., Mo, S.-K., Qi, X. L., Zhang, H. J., Lu, D. H., Dai, X., Fang, Z., et al. (2009) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1173034 · Cited by 3,585 · see citing works
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Inverse Spin-Galvanic Effect in the Interface between a Topological Insulator and a Ferromagnet
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- Authors
- Liu, Q., Liu, C.-X., Xu, C., Qi, X.-L., & Zhang, S.-C.
- Affiliations
- Fudan University (CN)
- Stanford University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Venue
- Physical Review Letters
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2009-04-17
- Volume
- 102
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- 156603-156603
- ISSN
- 0031-9007 (ISSN-L)
- 1079-7114
- OpenAlex
- W2128934954
- Cited by
- 607
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 29 · 2021: 41 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 47 · 2018: 34 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 49 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 43 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 48
- FWCI
- 19.34
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Physical Review Letters (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Magnetic properties of thin films
- Keywords
- topological insulators, surface states, magnetic impurities, Dirac equation, RKKY interaction, ferromagnetic ordering, local density of states, quenched disorder, renormalization group, spin-momentum coupling, scanning tunneling microscopy
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