Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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MA: Fachverband Magnetismus
MA 4: Transport: Topological Insulators (jointly with DS, MA, HL, O)
MA 4.7: Talk
Monday, March 20, 2017, 11:00–11:15, HSZ 204
A time-reversal symmetric topological magnetoelectric effect in 3D topological insulators — •Heinrich-Gregor Zirnstein and Bernd Rosenow — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Leipzig, Germany
One of the hallmarks of time-reversal symmetric (TRS) topological insulators in 3D is the topological magnetoelectric effect (TME). So far, a time-reversal breaking variant of this effect has been discussed, in the sense that the induced electric charge changes sign when the direction of an externally applied magnetic field is reversed. Theoretically, this effect is described by the so-called axion term. Here, we discuss a time-reversal symmetric TME, where the electric charge depends only on the magnitude of the magnetic field but is independent of its sign. We obtain this non-perturbative result by a combination of analytic and numerical arguments, and suggest a mesoscopic setup to demonstrate it experimentally.
In particular, we show that threading a thin magnetic flux tube of one flux quantum through the material and applying a uniform electric field will induce a half-integer charge Δ Q = e/2 sgnEz on the surface of the topological insulator. The sign of the induced charge is independent of the direction of the magnetic field.