Atomic Scale Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect in Monolayer Graphene/$\rm MnBi_{2}Te_{4}$ Heterostructure

Abstract

The two-dimensional quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect is direct evidence of non-trivial Berry curvature topology in condensed matter physics. Searching for QAH in 2D materials, particularly with simplified fabrication methods, poses a significant challenge in future applications. Despite numerous theoretical works proposed for the QAH effect with $C=2$ in graphene, neglecting magnetism sources such as proper substrate effects remain experimental evidence absent. In this work, we propose the QAH effect in graphene/$\rm MnBi_{2}Te_{4}$ (MBT) heterostructure based on density-functional theory (DFT). The monolayer MBT introduces spin-orbital coupling, Zeeman exchange field, and Kekul$\rm \acute{e}$ distortion as a substrate effect into graphene, resulting in QAH with $C=1$ in the heterostructure. Our effective Hamiltonian further presents a rich phase diagram that has not been studied previously. Our work provides a new and practical way to explore the QAH effect in monolayer graphene and the magnetic topological phases by the flexibility of MBT family materials.