2D MnTiX2 (X = F/Cl/Br) monolayers: Robust valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall insulators with high transition temperatures and wide bandgaps

Abstract

The valley-polarized quantum anomalous Hall (VP-QAH) materials, which combine valley polarization and the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect, are of both fundamental and technological importance due to their potential applications for nanoscale devices. Here, we explored the stability, magnetic, and topological properties of two-dimensional MnTiX2 (X = F/Cl/Br) monolayers based on first-principles calculations. Our results show that all the structures have robust antiferromagnetic orders with large magnetic anisotropic energies and high transition temperatures (480–670 K). In the absence of spin–orbital coupling (SOC), the MnTiX2 monolayers represent antiferromagnetic quadratic crossing semimetals. In the presence of SOC, the quadratic crossing points of the systems are opened with sizable bandgaps (> 0.5 eV), and they are transformed to be QAH insulators with |C| = 1. Moreover, the MnTiF2 monolayer is found to be a spontaneous VP-QAH semiconductor due to the time reversal symmetry and inversion symmetry being broken. These insights provide an ideal platform for achieving VP-QAH materials for dissipationless transport and quantum computing.