Published September 9, 2024 | Version v1
Journal article

Circularly polarized light irradiated ferromagnetic MnBi2Te4: A possible ideal Weyl semimetal

  • 1. Institute for Structure and Function, Department of Physics, and Chongqing Key Laboratory for Strongly Coupled Physics, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, People's Republic of China
  • 2. Center of Quantum Materials and Devices, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, People's Republic of China

Description

The interaction between light and nontrivial energy band topology allows for the precise manipulation of topological quantum states, which has attracted intensive interest in condensed-matter physics. In this work, using first-principles calculations, we studied the topological transition of ferromagnetic (FM) MnBi2Te4 upon irradiation with circularly polarized light (CPL). We revealed that the MnBi2Te4 can be driven from an FM insulator to a Weyl semimetal with a minimum number of Weyl points, i.e., two Weyl points (WPs) in systems without time-reversal symmetry. More importantly, in FM MnBi2Te4 with an out-of-plane easy magnetization axis, we found that the band dispersion of the WP evolves from type-II to type-III and finally to type-I when the light intensity increases. Moreover, we show that the profile of the characteristic Fermi arc of the Weyl semimetal phase is sensitive to changes in light intensity, which enables efficient manipulation of the Fermi arc length of FM MnBi2Te4 in experiments. In addition, for FM MnBi2Te4 with an in-plane easy magnetization axis, the system becomes a type-I Weyl semimetal under CPL irradiation. With controllable band dispersion, the length of the Fermi arc, and a minimum number of WPs, our results indicate that CPL-irradiated FM MnBi2Te4 is an ideal platform for the study of novel transport phenomena in Weyl semimetals with distinct band dispersion.

Additional details

Identifiers

DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.110.125204;
arXiv
arXiv:2405.04768;
Crossref Funder ID
10.13039/501100001809; 10.13039/501100005230; 10.13039/501100012152; 10.13039/501100002858;

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review B
Journal Volume
110
Journal Issue
12
Journal Page Range
7 pgs.
ISSN
1550-235X

Optional Information

Copyright
©2024 American Physical Society
Contract/Grant/Project number
12204074; 12222402; 11974062; 92365101; CSTB2023NSCQJQX0024; BX20220367; 2023M740411
Notes
These authors contributed equally to this work.; Contact Email: Contact author: madason.xin@gmail.com; Contact Email: Contact author: rcwang@cqu.edu.cn; Record automatically processed
Funding organization
National Natural Science Foundation of China; Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing; National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents; China Postdoctoral Science Foundation