Topological Hall Effect and Berry Phase in Magnetic Nanostructures

Abstract

We discuss the anomalous Hall effect in a two-dimensional electron gas subject to a spatially varying magnetization. This topological Hall effect does not require any spin-orbit coupling and arises solely from Berry phase acquired by an electron moving in a smoothly varying magnetization. We propose an experiment with a structure containing 2D electrons or holes of diluted magnetic semiconductor subject to the stray field of a lattice of magnetic nanocylinders. The striking behavior predicted for such a system (of which all relevant parameters are well known) allows one to observe unambiguously the topological Hall effect and to distinguish it from other mechanisms.