We study the surface crystalline and electronic structures of the antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi₂Te₄ using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S), micro(μ)-laser angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and density functional theory calculations. Our STM images reveal native point defects at the surface that we identify as Bi_Te antisites and Mn_Bi substitutions. Bulk X-ray diffraction further evidences the presence of the Mn-Bi intermixing. Overall, our characterizations suggest that the defects concentration is nonuniform within crystals and differs from sample to sample. Consistently, the ARPES and STS experiments reveal that the Dirac point gap of the topological surface state is different for different samples and sample cleavages, respectively. Our calculations show that the antiparallel alignment of the Mn_Bi moments with respect to those of the Mn layer can indeed cause a strong reduction of the Dirac point gap size. The present study provides important insights into a highly debated issue of the MnBi₂Te₄ Dirac point gap.

In this work, we employed angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to analyze the temperature dependent changes in the electronic structure of the first antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi₂Te₄ upon crossing the Néel temperature T_N ≈ 25 K. We observed an exchange splitting of the bulk conduction band, which has a power law dependence on temperature ${\left(1-T/T_0\right)}^{2\beta }$ with an onset temperature T₀ well matching the measured bulk T_N. We found a matching temperature evolution of the topological surface states integrated spectral weight in the vicinity of the Dirac point. Furthermore, we observed an additional quasi-2D state with Rashba-type splitting, which is also affected by the emerged magnetism and exhibits an opening of a gap, reminiscent of the effect of an out-of-plane magnetic field, below T_N. All these findings point toward strong evidence of the interplay between emerged magnetism with bulk and topological surface states. The observed temperature-dependent effects in MnBi₂Te₄ may be used as an experimental fingerprint for the presence of magnetism and may guide the future analysis of ARPES spectra in magnetic topological insulators.

Recently discovered intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_4$ presents an exciting platform for realization of the quantum anomalous Hall effect and a number of related phenomena at elevated temperatures. An important characteristic making this material attractive for applications is its predicted large magnetic gap at the Dirac point (DP). However, while the early experimental measurements reported on large DP gaps, a number of recent studies claimed to observe a gapless dispersion of the $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_4$ Dirac cone. Here, using micro($\mu$)-laser angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we study the electronic structure of 15 different $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_4$ samples, grown by two different chemists groups. Based on the careful energy distribution curves analysis, the DP gaps between 15 and 65 meV are observed, as measured below the Néel temperature at about 10–16 K. At that, roughly half of the studied samples show the DP gap of about 30 meV, while for a quarter of the samples the gaps are in the 50 to 60 meV range. Summarizing the results of both our and other groups, in the currently available $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_4$ samples the DP gap can acquire an arbitrary value between a few and several tens of meV. Furthermore, based on the density functional theory, we discuss a possible factor that might contribute to the reduction of the DP gap size, which is the excess surface charge that can appear due to various defects in surface region. We demonstrate that the DP gap is influenced by the applied surface charge and even can be closed, which can be taken advantage of to tune the $\mathrm{Mn}{\mathrm{Bi}}_2{\mathrm{Te}}_4$ DP gap size.

The antiferromagnetic ordering that MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ shows makes it invariant with respect to the combination of the time-reversal and primitive-lattice translation symmetries, giving rise to its topologically nontrivial nature and a number of fundamental phenomena. At the same time, the possibility to control the electronic and magnetic properties of this system can provide new effective ways for its application in devices. One of the approaches to manipulate MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ properties is the partial substitution of magnetic atoms in the compound with atoms of non-magnetic elements, which inevitably affect the interplay of magnetism and band topology in the system. In this work, we have carried out theoretical modelling of changes in the electronic structure that occur as a result of increasing the concentration of Sn atoms at Mn positions in the (Mn${}_{1-x}$Sn${}_x$)Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$ compound both using Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker (KKR) Green’s function method as well as the widespread approach of using supercells with impurity in DFT methods. The calculated band structures were also compared with those experimentally measured by angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) for samples with x values of 0, $0.19$, $0.36$, $0.52$ and $0.86$. We assume that the complex hybridization of Te-p${}_z$ and Bi-p${}_z$ orbitals with Sn and Mn ones leads to a non-linear dependence of band gap on Sn content in Mn positions, which is characterized by a plateau with a zero energy gap at some concentration values, suggesting possible topological phase transitions in the system.

One of the approaches to manipulate MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ properties is the magnetic dilution, which inevitably affects the interplay of magnetism and band topology in the system. In this work, we carried out angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations for analysing changes in the electronic structure of Mn${}_{1-x}$Ge${}_x$Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$ that occur under parameter x variation. We consider two ways of Mn/Ge substitution: (i) bulk doping of the whole system; (ii) surface doping of the first septuple layer. For the case (i), the experimental results reveal a decrease in the value of the bulk band gap, which should be reversed by an increase when the Ge concentration reaches a certain value. Ab-initio calculations show that at Ge concentrations above 50%, there is an absence of the bulk band inversion of the Te $p_z$ and Bi $p_z$ contributions at the $\Gamma$-point with significant spatial redistribution of the states at the band gap edges into the bulk, suggesting topological phase transition in the system. For case (ii) of the vertical heterostructure Mn${}_{1-x}$Ge${}_x$Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$/MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$, it was shown that an increase of Ge concentration in the first septuple layer leads to effective modulation of the Dirac gap in the absence of significant topological surface states of spatial redistribution. The results obtained indicate that surface doping compares favorably compared to bulk doping as a method for the Dirac gap value modulation.

We investigated the magnetic properties of the antiferromagnetic (AFM) topological insulator MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ with a partial substitution of Mn atoms by non-magnetic elements (A${}^{\mathrm{IV}}$ = Ge, Pb, Sn). Samples with various element concentrations (10–80%) were studied using SQUID magnetometry. The results demonstrate that, for all substitutes the type of magnetic ordering remains AFM, while the Néel temperature (T${}_{\mathrm{N}}$) and spin-flop transition field (H${}_{\mathrm{SF}}$) decrease with an increasing A${}^{\mathrm{IV}}$ = Ge, Pb, Sn concentration. The rate of decrease varies among the elements, being highest for Pb, followed by Sn and Ge. This behavior is attributed to the combined effects of the magnetic dilution and lattice parameter increase on magnetic properties, most prominent in (Mn${}_{1-x}$Pb${}_x$)Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$. Besides this, the linear approximation of the experimental data of T${}_{\mathrm{N}}$ and H${}_{\mathrm{SF}}$ suggests higher magnetic parameters for pure MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ than observed experimentally, indicating the possibility of their non-monotonic variation at low concentrations and the potential for enhancing magnetic properties through doping MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$ with small amounts of nonmagnetic impurities. Notably, the (Mn${}_{1-x}$Pb${}_x$)Bi${}_2$Te${}_4$ sample with 10% Pb substitution indeed exhibits increased magnetic parameters, which is also validated by local-probe analyses using ARPES. Our findings shed light on tailoring the magnetic behavior of MnBi${}_2$Te${}_4$-based materials, offering insights into the potential applications in device technologies.