Probing Berry curvature in magnetic topological insulators through resonant infrared magnetic circular dichroism

Abstract

Probing the quantum geometry and topology in condensed matter systems has relied heavily on static electronic transport experiments in magnetic fields. Yet, contact-free optical measurements have rarely been explored. Magnetic dichroism (MCD), the nonreciprocal absorption of circular polarized light, was theoretically linked to the quantized anomalous Hall effect in magnetic insulators and can identify the bands and momenta responsible for the underlying Berry Curvature (BC). Detecting BC through MCD faces two challenges: First, the relevant inter-band transitions usually generate MCD in the infrared (IR) range, requiring large samples with high quality. Second, while most magnetic materials are metallic, the relation between MCD and BC in metals remains unclear. Here, we report the observation of MCD in the IR range along with the anomalous Hall effect in thin film MnBi2Te4. Both phenomena emerge with a field-driven phase transition from an antiferromagnet to a canted ferromagnet. By theoretically relating the MCD to the anomalous Hall effect via BC in a metal, we show that this transition accompanies an abrupt onset of BC, signaling a topological phase transition from a topological insulator to a doped Chern insulator. Our density functional theory calculation suggests the MCD signal mainly originates from an optical transition at the Brillouin zone edge, hinting at a potential new source of BC away from the commonly considered {\Gamma} point. Our findings demonstrate a novel experimental approach for detecting BC and identifying the responsible bands and momenta, generally applicable to magnetic materials.