Large exchange bias field and its coupling-controlled sign reversal in a van der Waals heterostructure of CrI3/MnBi2Te4 ferromagnetic insulator/antiferromagnetic topological insulator

Abstract

Here we fabricate the van der Waals heterostructure devices with ferromagnetic insulator CrI3 nanoflakes and few-layers antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and study the exchange bias behavior. The devices originally exhibit a negative exchange bias effect, which size decays with the increasing temperature and stays unchanged while tuning the back-gate voltage. When the device configuration turns to partially covered by CrI3, the exchange bias becomes positive with a very large exchange bias field of over 300 mT. Such sensitive manipulation is interpreted by the competitive onset of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic coupling through the interface of CrI3 and MnBi2Te4, pointing to tunable interface interactions and controlled quantum anomalous Hall state manipulation.