Giant Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in a Quantum Anomalous Hall Insulator

Abstract: When a three-dimensional (3D) ferromagnetic topological insulator thin film is magnetized out-of-plane, conduction ideally occurs through dissipationless, one-dimensional (1D) chiral states that are characterized by a quantized, zero-field Hall conductance. The recent realization of this phenomenon - the quantum anomalous Hall effect - provides a conceptually new platform for studies of edge-state transport, distinct from the more extensively studied integer and fractional quantum Hall effects that arise from Landau level formation. An important question arises in this context: how do these 1D edge states evolve as the magnetization is changed from out-of-plane to in-plane? We examine this question by studying the field-tilt driven crossover from predominantly edge state transport to diffusive transport in Cr-doped (Bi,Sb)2Te3 thin films, as the system transitions from a quantum anomalous Hall insulator to a gapless, ferromagnetic topological insulator. The crossover manifests itself in a giant, electrically tunable anisotropic magnetoresistance that we explain using the Landauer-Buttiker formalism. Our methodology provides a powerful means of quantifying edge state contributions to transport in temperature and chemical potential regimes far from perfect quantization.