Electric-field-tunable topological phases in valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall systems with inequivalent exchange fields

Abstract

Incorporating valley as a degree of freedom into quantum anomalous Hall systems offers a novel approach to manipulating valleytronics in electronic transport. Using the Kane−Mele monolayer as a concrete model, we comprehensively explore the various topological phases in the presence of inequivalent exchange fields and reveal the roles of the interfacial Rashba effect and external electric field in tuning topological valley-polarized states. We find that valley-polarized states can be realized by introducing Kane−Mele spin−orbit coupling and inequivalent exchange fields. Further introducing Rashba spin−orbit coupling and an electric field into the system can lead to diverse topological states, such as the valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall effect with \mathcal{C}=\pm 1,\pm 2 and valley-contrasting states with \mathcal{C}=0. Remarkably, different valley-polarized topological states can be continuously tuned by varying the strength and direction of the external electric field in a fixed system. Our work demonstrates the tunability of topological states in valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall systems and provides an ideal platform for applications in electronic transport devices in topological valleytronics.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

quantum anomalous Hall effect / topological phase transition / valleytronics / valley-polarized / topological states

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Declarations

The authors declare no competing interests and no conflicts.

Electronic supplementary materials

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.15302/frontphys.2025.014207.

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 12004369), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province (No. 2022J05019), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2023M733411 and 2023TQ0347), and the Education and Research fund for Young Teachers of Fujian Province (No. JAT210014).

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