Magnetic Dirac fermions and Chern insulator supported on pristine silicon surface

Emergence of ferromagnetism in nonmagnetic semiconductors is strongly desirable, especially in topological materials because of the possibility of achieving the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose that for Si thin film grown on metal substrate, the pristine Si(111)-root 3 x root 3 surface with a spontaneous weak reconstruction has a strong tendency toward ferromagnetism and nontrivial topological properties, characterized by spin-polarized Dirac-fermion surface states. In contrast to conventional routes relying on introduction of alien charge carriers or specially patterned substrates, the spontaneous magnetic order and spin-orbit coupling on the pristine silicon surface together give rise to the quantized anomalous Hall effect with a finite Chern number C = - 1. This work suggests opportunities in silicon-based spintronics and quantum computing free from alien dopants or proximity effects.