Fluctuation Mechanism of Single-Ion Anisotropy of Topological Insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866910115524771840 |
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| author | Val'kov, V. V. Zlotnikov, A. O. Gamov, A. |
| author_facet | Val'kov, V. V. Zlotnikov, A. O. Gamov, A. |
| contents | We demonstrate that charge fluctuations induced by electron hopping, combined with spin-orbit coupling, lift the sixfold degeneracy of the orbital singlet $^{6}S$ of Mn ions in the topological insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, resulting in single-ion anisotropy. To solve the problem, a multiplet representation is introduced for the creation operators of atomic-state fermions in terms of the operators describing transitions between many-body wavefunctions. Using the operator form of perturbation theory up to the second order, we derive expressions for the populations $n_M$ of Mn ion states with spin projections $M$ of the $^{6}S$ term and determine the single ion anisotropy constants. The calculations reveal that the fluctuation mechanism ensures the possibility of implementing the easy-axis anisotropy observed in MnBi$_2$Te$_4$. Notably, the range of anisotropy constants $D_2$ obtained by varying the model parameters includes the value $D_2 = -0.0095$ meV, required to reproduce the critical field of the spin-flop transition $H_{\text{sf}}$, known from the experiment. The proposed mechanism has a wide range of applicability for describing the anisotropy in compounds where the ground state of a magnetic ion in a weak crystal field is described by an orbital singlet. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_07852 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Fluctuation Mechanism of Single-Ion Anisotropy of Topological Insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ Val'kov, V. V. Zlotnikov, A. O. Gamov, A. Strongly Correlated Electrons We demonstrate that charge fluctuations induced by electron hopping, combined with spin-orbit coupling, lift the sixfold degeneracy of the orbital singlet $^{6}S$ of Mn ions in the topological insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, resulting in single-ion anisotropy. To solve the problem, a multiplet representation is introduced for the creation operators of atomic-state fermions in terms of the operators describing transitions between many-body wavefunctions. Using the operator form of perturbation theory up to the second order, we derive expressions for the populations $n_M$ of Mn ion states with spin projections $M$ of the $^{6}S$ term and determine the single ion anisotropy constants. The calculations reveal that the fluctuation mechanism ensures the possibility of implementing the easy-axis anisotropy observed in MnBi$_2$Te$_4$. Notably, the range of anisotropy constants $D_2$ obtained by varying the model parameters includes the value $D_2 = -0.0095$ meV, required to reproduce the critical field of the spin-flop transition $H_{\text{sf}}$, known from the experiment. The proposed mechanism has a wide range of applicability for describing the anisotropy in compounds where the ground state of a magnetic ion in a weak crystal field is described by an orbital singlet. |
| title | Fluctuation Mechanism of Single-Ion Anisotropy of Topological Insulator MnBi$_2$Te$_4$ |
| topic | Strongly Correlated Electrons |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.07852 |