Topological excitations in quasi two-dimensional quantum magnets with weak interlayer interactions

Abstract

The study of topological magnetic excitations has attracted widespread attention in the past few years. In this thesis, I have studied some examples of novel topological magnonic phases/phenomena in low-dimensional quantum magnets. The first chapter motivates the research based on the research gap in this field of study. The second chapter is written to make the thesis self-sufficient and the concepts are explained through examples. In the second chapter, the following formalisms and physical observables are described: Holstein-Primakoff, bond operator, Schwinger boson, Bogoliubov-Valatin, Group theory, Berry-phase, Berry-curvature, Chern number, thermal Hall conductance, Nernst conductivity, dynamical spin structure factor, edge-current. The main results of the thesis are shown in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters. In the third chapter, I have shown that anti-chiral edge states (co-propagating edge states) arise in the ferromagnetic Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions. My results suggest that such anti-chiral edge states may be induced in certain realistic models of quantum magnets. In the fourth chapter, I have found the emergence of many magnon band-topological phases in the flux state of the Shastry-Sutherland model. I have derived a simple analytical form of the temperature dependence of derivative of thermal Hall conductivity near the band topological transition point which I propose to be experimentally useful. In the fifth chapter, I have investigated the emergence of Weyl triplons due to inter-layer DM-interaction in a microscopic model of SrCu2(BO3)2, a widely studied frustrated quantum magnet. I have shown that the thermal magnon Hall conductivity has a quasi-linear dependence as a function of the magnetic field in a Weyl-triplon region.