Recently discovered intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator presents an exciting platform for realization of the quantum anomalous Hall effect and a number of related phenomena at elevated temperatures. An important characteristic making this material attractive for applications is its predicted large magnetic gap at the Dirac point (DP). However, while the early experimental measurements reported on large DP gaps, a number of recent studies claimed to observe a gapless dispersion of the Dirac cone. Here, using micro()-laser angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we study the electronic structure of 15 different samples, grown by two different chemists groups. Based on the careful energy distribution curves analysis, the DP gaps between 15 and 65 meV are observed, as measured below the Néel temperature at about 10-16 K. At that, roughly half of the studied samples show the DP gap of about 30 meV, while for a quarter of the samples the gaps are in the 50 to 60 meV range. Summarizing the results of both our and other groups, in the currently available samples the DP gap can acquire an arbitrary value between a few and several tens of meV. Furthermore, based on the density functional theory, we discuss a possible factor that might contribute to the reduction of the DP gap size, which is the excess surface charge that can appear due to various defects in surface region. We demonstrate that the DP gap is influenced by the applied surface charge and even can be closed, which can be taken advantage of to tune the DP gap size.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115168
Number of pages11
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume104
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Sep 2021

    Scopus subject areas

  • Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
  • Condensed Matter Physics

ID: 87272140