Gate-Tunable Anomalous Hall Effect in Stacked van der Waals Ferromagnetic Insulator-Topological Insulator Heterostructures

The search of novel topological states, such as the quantum anomalous Hall insulator and chiral Majorana fermions, has motivated different schemes to introduce magnetism into topological insulators. A promising scheme is using the magnetic proximity effect (MPE), where a ferromagnetic insulator magnetizes the topological insulator. Most of these heterostructures are synthesized by growth techniques which prevent mixing many of the available ferromagnetic and topological insulators due to difference in growth conditions. Here, we demonstrate that MPE can be obtained in heterostructures stacked via the dry transfer of flakes of van der Waals ferromagnetic and topological insulators (Cr₂Ge₂Te₆/BiSbTeSe₂), as evidenced in the observation of an anomalous Hall effect (AHE). Furthermore, devices made from these heterostructures allow modulation of the AHE when controlling the carrier density via electrostatic gating. These results show that simple mechanical transfer of magnetic van der Waals materials provides another possible avenue to magnetize topological insulators by MPE.