Can in-plane magnetization produce a quantum anomalous Hall state?
Calculations for buckled honeycomb monolayers of group-V elements predicted two types of topological phases with different Chern numbers.
Peichen Zhong and colleagues used first-principles calculations to build a tight-binding model for group-V monolayers. They asked whether a buckled honeycomb lattice could support a quantum anomalous Hall state when magnetization lies parallel to the layer.
In the model, in-plane magnetization and spin–orbit coupling together opened a topological gap. Varying the coupling produced phases with absolute Chern numbers of one or two. Liyuan Zhang and Zhenhua Qiao are the corresponding authors.