Anisotropic topological magnetoelectric effect in axion insulators

Abstract: Three-dimensional topological insulators or axion insulators exhibit the topological magnetoelectric effect, which is isotropic with a universal coefficient of proportionality quantized in units of $e^2/2h$. Here we study the finite-size effect of topological magnetoelectric effect, and find the magnetoelectric coefficients are anisotropic, namely $\alpha_{xx}\neq\alpha_{zz}$. Both of them are shown to converge to a quantized value when the thickness of topological insulator film $d$ increases reaching the three-dimensional bulk limit. The nonzero value of $(\alpha_{xx}-\alpha_{zz})\propto1/d$ could be measured by using the gyrotropic or nonreciprocal birefringence of terahertz light. The unique $1/d$ dependence on film thickness of the rotation angle of optical principle axes is the manifestation of topological magnetoelectric effect, which may also serve as a smoking gun signature for axion insulators.