Litcius/Paper detail

Current-Driven Magnetization Reversal in Orbital Chern Insulators

Chunli Huang, Nemin Wei, A. H. MacDonald

2021Physical Review Letters24 citationsDOIOpen Access PDF

Abstract

Graphene multilayers with flat moiré minibands can exhibit the quantized anomalous Hall effect due to the combined influence of spontaneous valley polarization and topologically nontrivial valley-projected bands. The sign of the Hall effect in these Chern insulators can be reversed either by applying an external magnetic field, or by driving a transport current through the system. We propose a current-driven mechanism whereby reversal occurs along lines in the (current I, magnetic-field B) control parameter space with slope dI/dB=(e/h)MA_{M}(1-γ^{2})/γ, where M is the magnetization, A_{M} is the moiré unit cell area, and γ<1 is the ratio of the chemical potential difference between valleys along a domain wall to the electrical bias eV.

Topics & Concepts

Condensed matter physicsMagnetizationPhysicsMagnetic fieldPolarization (electrochemistry)Hall effectCurrent (fluid)GrapheneMagnetization reversalQuantum mechanicsChemistryMagnetic anisotropyPhysical chemistryThermodynamicsGraphene research and applicationsQuantum and electron transport phenomenaTopological Materials and Phenomena