Fully funded PhD position at LNCMI-Toulouse: Magnetotransport in magnetic topological insulator monolayers MnBi2Te4

Magnetotransport in magnetic topological insulator monolayers MnBi₂Te₄:
Toward a Quantum Anomalous Hall device for metrology

As part of an international collaboration between the LNCMI-Toulouse (France) and the IFW-Dresden (Germany), a PhD position (and M2 internship potentially preceding it) is open at LNCMI, for a PhD starting date ideally before 10.2025. The project is a fundamental study of the intrinsic properties of magnetic topological insulators, a fascinating electronic phase of matter recently discovered which demonstrated potential for quantum metrology.

Details on the PhD:
M2 internship: as a pre-PhD internship (preferred but non-mandatory)
Funding: fully funded position through the French-German ANR-DFG project IMAGIN
Location: LNCMI, Toulouse. As the PhD will be in co-tutelle with the IFW-Dresden, regular research
stays (up to a part of the PhD) is planned at IFW (especially for nanofabrication) – to be discussed.
Duration: 3 years (regulatory duration of a PhD thesis in France. Applicants must hold a Master degree)

Background:
The concept of topological phase transition (awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 2016) has triggered intensive research in fundamental physics as well as in applied research in the last 20 years, touching fields as various as material research, optics, electronics, and metrology. In condensed matter, topological systems are characterized by intrinsically metallic interface states surrounding an insulating bulk. While 2D topological phases, such as the Quantum Hall effect (QHE), have metallic 1D edge channels around an insulating surface, 3D topological insulators (3DTI, such as the Bi₂Se₃-Bi₂Te₃ family) display on their surface 2D metallic surface states with fascinating properties (helical spintexture and linear band structure similar to that of graphene).
Recently, a new type of topological system, the magnetic 3DTI MnBi₂Te₄, has been discovered. Beyond surface states, MnBi₂Te₄ has been shown to display the Quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAHE) with quantized conductance of