Interlayer ferromagnetism and high-temperature quantum anomalous Hall effect in p-doped MnBi2Te4 multilayers

The interlayer antiferromagnetic coupling hinders the observation of quantum anomalous Hall effect in magnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4. We demonstrate that interlayer ferromagnetism can be established by utilizing the p-doping method in MnBi2Te4 multilayers. In two septuple layers system, the interlayer ferromagnetic coupling appears by doping nonmagnetic elements (e.g., N, P, As, Na, Mg, K, and Ca), due to the redistribution of orbital occupations of Mn. We further find that Mg and Ca elements are the most suitable candidates because of their low formation energy. Although, the p-doped two septuple layers exhibit topologically trivial band structure, the increase of layer thickness to three (four) septuple layers with Ca (Mg) dopants leads to the formation of the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Our proposed p-doping strategy without introducing additional magnetic disorder not only makes MnBi2Te4 become an ideal platform to realize the high-temperature quantum anomalous Hall effect without external magnetic field, but also can compensate the electrons from the intrinsic n-type defects in MnBi2Te4.