Thermal screening at finite chemical potential on a topological surface and its interplay with proximity-induced ferromagnetism

Flavio S. Nogueira and Ilya Eremin
Phys. Rev. B 90, 014431 – Published 25 July 2014

Abstract

Motivated by recent experiments on EuS/Bi2Se3 heterostructures, we study the temperature dependent screening effects on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator proximate to a ferromagnetically ordered system. In general, we find that besides the chemical potential and temperature, the screening energy scale also depends on the proximity-induced electronic gap in an essential way. In particular, at zero temperature the screening energy vanishes if the chemical potential is smaller than the proximity-induced electronic gap. We show that at finite temperature T and/or chemical potential μ, the Chern-Simons (topological) mass, which is generated by quantum fluctuations arising from the proximity effect, can be calculated analytically in the insulating regime. In this case the topological mass yields the Hall conductivity associated with edge states. We show that when the chemical potential is inside the gap the topological mass remains nearly quantized at finite temperature.

  • Figure
  • Received 16 September 2013
  • Revised 15 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.90.014431

©2014 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Flavio S. Nogueira1 and Ilya Eremin1,2

  • 1Institut für Theoretische Physik III, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, DE-44801 Bochum, Germany
  • 2National University of Science and Technology “MISiS”, Moscow, 119049, Russian Fedeation

Article Text (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand

References (Subscription Required)

Click to Expand
Issue

Vol. 90, Iss. 1 — 1 July 2014

Reuse & Permissions
Access Options
Author publication services for translation and copyediting assistance advertisement

Authorization Required


×
×

Images

×

Sign up to receive regular email alerts from Physical Review B

Log In

Cancel
×

Search


Article Lookup

Paste a citation or DOI

Enter a citation
×