Topological thermal Hall effect of magnons in magnetic skyrmion lattice

Abstract

Topological transports of fermions are governed by the Chern numbers of the energy bands lying below the Fermi energy. For bosons, e.g. phonons and magnons in a crystal, topological transport is dominated by the Chern number of the lowest energy band when the band gap is comparable to the thermal energy. Here, we demonstrate the presence of topological transport by bosonic magnons in a lattice of magnetic skyrmions - topological defects formed by a vortex-like texture of spins. We find a distinct thermal Hall signal in the magnetic skyrmion phase of an insulating polar magnet GaV4Se8, identified as the topological thermal Hall effect of magnons governed by the Chern number of the lowest energy band of the magnons in a triangular lattice of magnetic skyrmions. Our findings lay a foundation for studying topological phenomena of other bosonic excitations through thermal Hall probe.