Magnetic crystalline-symmetry-protected axion electrodynamics and field-tunable unpinned Dirac cones in EuIn2As2

Abstract

Knowledge of magnetic symmetry is vital for exploiting nontrivial surface states of magnetic topological materials. EuIn₂As₂ is an excellent example, as it is predicted to have collinear antiferromagnetic order where the magnetic moment direction determines either a topological-crystalline-insulator phase supporting axion electrodynamics or a higher-order-topological-insulator phase with chiral hinge states. Here, we use neutron diffraction, symmetry analysis, and density functional theory results to demonstrate that EuIn₂As₂ actually exhibits low-symmetry helical antiferromagnetic order which makes it a stoichiometric magnetic topological-crystalline axion insulator protected by the combination of a 180^∘ rotation and time-reversal symmetries: $C_2\times \mathcal{T}=2^{\prime }$. Surfaces protected by $2^{\prime }$ are expected to have an exotic gapless Dirac cone which is unpinned to specific crystal momenta. All other surfaces have gapped Dirac cones and exhibit half-integer quantum anomalous Hall conductivity. We predict that the direction of a modest applied magnetic field of μ₀H ≈ 1 to 2 T can tune between gapless and gapped surface states.

Magnetic symmetry is a vital factor to determine exotic topological phases. Here, Riberolles et al. demonstrate a helical antiferromagnetic order in EuIn₂As₂ which makes it a magnetic topological-crystalline axion insulator.