Theory of the Dirac half metal and quantum anomalous Hall effect in Mn-intercalated epitaxial graphene

The prospect of a Dirac half metal, a material which is characterized by a band structure with a gap in one spin channel but a Dirac cone in the other, is of both fundamental interest and a natural candidate for use in spin-polarized current applications. However, while the possibility of such a material has been reported based on model calculations [H. Ishizuka and Y. Motome, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 237207 (2012)], it remains unclear what material system might realize such an exotic state. Using first-principles calculations, we show that the experimentally accessible Mn-intercalated epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001) transits to a Dirac half metal when the coverage is >1/3 monolayer. This transition results from an orbital-selective breaking of quasi-two-dimensional inversion symmetry, leading to symmetry breaking in a single spin channel which is robust against randomness in the distribution of Mn intercalates. Furthermore, the inclusion of spin-orbit interaction naturally drives the system into the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state. Our results thus not only demonstrate the practicality of realizing the Dirac half metal beyond a toy model, but also open up an avenue to the realization of the QAH effect.