Issue 36, 2024

A 2D low-buckled hexagonal honeycomb Weyl-point spin-gapless semiconductor family with the quantum anomalous Hall effect

Abstract

Spin-gapless semiconductors (SGSs), serving as superior alternatives to half-metals, open up new avenues in spintronics. Specifically, Weyl-point SGSs (WPSGSs) with ideal Weyl points at the Fermi energy level represent an optimal amalgamation of spintronics and topological physics. Moreover, considering spin–orbital coupling (SOC), most two-dimensional (2D) WPSGSs undergo transformation into half Chern insulators (HCIs) with the emergence of the quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE). The 2D I–II–V half-Heusler compounds, constituting a broad family of narrow-bandgap semiconductors with low-buckled hexagonal honeycomb crystal structures akin to silicene, aptly function as SGSs and serve as nontrivial topological parent materials. Through first-principles calculations, we propose that the Li12X10Cr2Y12 (X = Mg, Zn, Cd; Y = P, As) monolayers, derived by substituting certain X atoms in the LiXY (X = Mg, Zn, Cd; Y = P, As) monolayers of I–II–V half-Heusler compounds with Cr atoms, emerge as potential candidates for ideal 2D WPSGSs. These monolayers exhibit stable thermodynamic properties and 100% spin polarization. With SOC taken into account, the Li12X10Cr2Y12 monolayers transition into HCIs with a Chern number of +1, giving rise to the QAHE. These intriguing findings lay the groundwork for a promising material platform for the development of low-power spintronic and topological microelectronic devices.

Graphical abstract: A 2D low-buckled hexagonal honeycomb Weyl-point spin-gapless semiconductor family with the quantum anomalous Hall effect

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Jan 2024
Accepted
11 Aug 2024
First published
13 Aug 2024

Nanoscale, 2024,16, 17110-17117

A 2D low-buckled hexagonal honeycomb Weyl-point spin-gapless semiconductor family with the quantum anomalous Hall effect

W. Zhang, S. Ding, J. Zhang, Z. Cheng and Z. Wu, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 17110 DOI: 10.1039/D4NR00120F

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