Quantum Anomalous Parity Hall Effect in Magnetically Disordered Topological Insulator Films

Phys Rev Lett. 2019 Jul 26;123(4):046801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.046801.

Abstract

In magnetically doped thin-film topological insulators, aligning the magnetic moments generates a quantum anomalous Hall phase supporting a single chiral edge state. We show that as the system demagnetizes, disorder from randomly oriented magnetic moments can produce a "quantum anomalous parity Hall" phase with helical edge modes protected by a unitary reflection symmetry. We further show that introducing superconductivity, combined with selective breaking of reflection symmetry by a gate, allows for creation and manipulation of Majorana zero modes via purely electrical means and at zero applied magnetic field.