Topological Magnon Insulator Research Articles

Coupled Electronic and Magnonic Topological States in Two-Dimensional Ferromagnets.

Magnetic materials offer a fertile playground for fundamental physics discovery, with not only electronic but also magnonic topological states intensively explored. However, one natural material with both electronic and magnonic nontrivial topologies is still unknown. Here, we demonstrate the coexistence of first-order topological magnon insulators (TMIs) and electronic second-order topological insulators (SOTIs) in 2D honeycomb ferromagnets, giving rise to the nontrivial corner states being connected by the charge-free magnonic edge states. We show that, with symmetry, the phase factor ± ϕ caused by the next nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction breaks the pseudo-spin time-reversal symmetry , which leads to the split of magnon bands, i.e., the emergence of TMIs with a nonzero Chern number of , in experimentally feasible candidates of MoI3, CrSiTe3, and CrGeTe3 monolayers. Moreover, protected by the symmetry, the electronic SOTIs characterized by nontrivial corner states are obtained, bridging the topological aspect of fermions and bosons with a high possibility of innovative applications in spintronics devices.

Breakdown of chiral edge modes in topological magnon insulators

Breakdown of chiral edge modes in topological magnon insulators

Stacking-dependent topological magnons in bilayer CrI3

Motivated by the potential of atomically thin magnets towards achieving tunable high-frequency magnonics, we detail the spin-wave dispersion of bilayer ${\mathrm{CrI}}_{3}$. We demonstrate that the magnonic behavior of the bilayer strongly depends on its stacking configuration and the interlayer magnetic ordering, where a topological band gap opens in the dispersion caused by the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and Kitaev interactions, classifying bilayer ${\mathrm{CrI}}_{3}$ as a topological magnon insulator. We further reveal that both the size and the topology of the band gap in a ${\mathrm{CrI}}_{3}$ bilayer with an antiferromagnetic interlayer ordering are tunable by an external magnetic field.

Direct Optical Probe of Magnon Topology in Two-Dimensional Quantum Magnets.

Controlling edge states of topological magnon insulators is a promising route to stable spintronics devices. However, to experimentally ascertain the topology of magnon bands is a challenging task. Here we derive a fundamental relation between the light-matter coupling and the quantum geometry of magnon states. This allows us to establish the two-magnon Raman circular dichroism as an optical probe of magnon topology in honeycomb magnets, in particular of the Chern number and the topological gap. Our results pave the way for interfacing light and topological magnons in functional quantum devices.

Magnon corner states in twisted bilayer honeycomb magnets

Search for higher-order topological insulators, characterized by topologically protected gapless boundary states of codimension higher than one, in bosonic systems has attracted growing interest. Here, we establish twisted bilayer honeycomb magnets as a new platform for hosting second-order topological magnon insulators (SOTMIs) without fine-tuning. We employ a simple, minimal Heisenberg spin model to describe misaligned bilayer sheets of honeycomb ferromagnetic magnets with a large commensurate twist angle. We found that the higher-order topology in this bilayer system shows a significant dependence on the interlayer exchange coupling. The SOTMI, featuring topologically protected magnon corner states, appears for ferromagnetic interlayer couplings, while the twisted bilayer exhibits a nodal phase in the case of antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling.

Topological phase transition in magnon bands in a honeycomb ferromagnet driven by sublattice symmetry breaking

Ferromagnetic honeycomb systems are known to exhibit a magnonic topological phase under the existence of the next-nearest neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). Motivated by the recent progress in the sublattice-specific control of magnetic anisotropy, we study the topological phase of magnon bands of honeycomb ferromagnetic monolayer and bilayer with the sublattice symmetry breaking due to the different anisotropy energy in the presence of the DMI. We show that there is a topological phase transition between the topological magnon insulator and the topologically trivial magnon phase driven by the change of the relative size of the DMI and the anisotropy differences between the sublattices. The magnon thermal Hall conductivity is proposed as an experimental probe of the magnon topology.

Higher-order topological phases of magnons protected by magnetic crystalline symmetries

Magnetic symmetry is vital for characterizing the topological protections of magnons. Here, we propose a second-order topological magnon insulator by stacking the honeycomb ferromagnets with antiferromagnetic interlayer coupling. The system exhibits a magnonic three-dimensional ${Z}_{2}$ topological phase, broken by an easy-plane anisotropy. Nevertheless, it preserves various magnetic crystalline symmetries, which protect second-order topological corner and hinge modes. First, a magnetic twofold rotational symmetry protects the corner modes in the bilayer and hinge modes along the stacking direction. Second, a mirror symmetry along the stacking direction establishes a ${Z}_{2}\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}Z$ topology, giving rise to gapped topological surface modes carrying nonzero Chern numbers, which leads to a surface thermal Hall effect of magnons and chiral hinge modes along the horizontal hinges. We further demonstrate that the corner and hinge modes are robust against the XYZ exchange anisotropy and Kitaev interaction.

Dipolar spin-waves and tunable band gap at the Dirac points in the 2D magnet ErBr3

Topological magnon insulators constitute a growing field of research for their potential use as information carriers without heat dissipation. We report an experimental and theoretical study of the magnetic ground-state and excitations in the van der Waals two-dimensional honeycomb magnet ErBr3. We show that the magnetic properties of this compound are entirely governed by the dipolar interactions which generate a continuously degenerate non-collinear ground-state on the honeycomb lattice with spins confined in the plane. We find that the magnon dispersion exhibits Dirac-like cones when the magnetic moments in the ground-state are related by time-reversal and inversion symmetries associated with a Berry phase π as in single-layer graphene. A magnon band gap opens when the dipoles are rotated away from this state, entailing a finite Berry curvature in the vicinity of the K and K’ Dirac points. Our results illustrate that the spin-wave dispersion of dipoles on the honeycomb lattice can be reversibly controlled from a magnetic phase with Dirac cones to a topological antiferromagnetic insulator with non-trivial valley Chern number.

Evidence of Magnon-Mediated Orbital Magnetism in a Quasi-2D Topological Magnon Insulator.

We explore spin dynamics in Cu(1,3-bdc), a quasi-2D topological magnon insulator. The results show that the thermal evolution of the Landé g factor (g) is anisotropic: gin-plane decreases while gout-of-plane increases with increasing temperature T. Moreover, the anisotropy of the g factor (Δg) and the anisotropy of saturation magnetization (ΔMs) are correlated below 4 K, but they diverge above 4 K. We show that the electronic orbital moment contributes to the g anisotropy at lower T, while the topological orbital moment induced by thermally excited spin chirality dictates the g anisotropy at higher T. Our work suggests an interplay among topology, spin chirality, and orbital magnetism in Cu(1,3-bdc).

Characterization of topological phase of superlattices in superconducting circuits

The recent experimental observation of topological magnon insulator states in a superconducting circuit chain marks a breakthrough for topological physics with qubits, in which a dimerized qubit chain has been realized. Here, we extend such a dimer lattice to superlattice with arbitrary number of qubits in each unit cell in superconducting circuits, which exhibits rich topological properties. Specifically, by considering a quadrimeric superlattice, we show that the topological invariant (winding number) can be effectively characterized by the dynamics of the single-excitation quantum state through time-dependent quantities. Moreover, we explore the appearance and detection of the topological protected edge states in such a multiband qubit system. Finally, we also demonstrate the stable Bloch-like-oscillation of multiple interface states induced by the interference of them. Our proposal can be readily realized in experiment and may pave the way towards the investigation of topological quantum phases and topologically protected quantum information processing.

Topological magnon insulators in two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnets CrSiTe3 and CrGeTe3: Toward intrinsic gap-tunability.

The bosonic analogs of topological insulators have been proposed in numerous theoretical works, but their experimental realization is still very rare, especially for spin systems. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb van der Waals ferromagnets have emerged as a new platform for topological spin excitations. Here, via a comprehensive inelastic neutron scattering study and theoretical analysis of the spin-wave excitations, we report the realization of topological magnon insulators in CrXTe3 (X = Si, Ge) compounds. The nontrivial nature and intrinsic tunability of the gap opening at the magnon band-crossing Dirac points are confirmed, while the emergence of the corresponding in-gap topological edge states is demonstrated theoretically. The realization of topological magnon insulators with intrinsic gap-unability in this class of remarkable 2D materials will undoubtedly lead to new and fascinating technological applications in the domain of magnonics and topological spintronics.

Photoinduced Floquet topological magnons in a ferromagnetic checkerboard lattice

This theoretical work is devoted to investigating laser-irradiated Floquet topological magnon insulators on a two-dimensional checkerboard ferromagnet and corresponding topological phase transitions. It is shown that the checkerboard Floquet topological magnon insulator is able to be transformed from a topological magnon insulator into another one possessing various Berry curvatures and Chern numbers by changing the light intensity. Especially, we also show that both Tamm-like and topologically protected Floquet magnon edge states can exist when a nontrivial gap opens. In addition, our results display that the sign of the Floquet thermal Hall conductivity is also tunable via varying the light intensity of the laser field.

Hinge magnons from noncollinear magnetic order in a honeycomb antiferromagnet

We propose that noncollinear magnetic order in magnetic systems can harbor a higher-order topological magnon phase with non-Hermitian topology and hinge magnon modes. We consider a three-dimensional system of interacting local moments on stacked layers of honeycomb lattice. It initially favors a collinear magnetic order along an in-plane direction, which turns into a noncollinear order upon applying an external magnetic field perpendicular to the easy axis. We exploit the non-Hermitian nature of the magnon Hamiltonian to show that this field-induced transition corresponds to the transformation from a topological magnon insulator to a higher-order topological magnon state with a one-dimensional hinge mode. As a concrete example, we discuss the recently discovered monoclinic phase of thin chromium trihalides, which we propose as a promising material candidate of the higher-order topological magnon phase.

Chiral hinge magnons in second-order topological magnon insulators

When interacting spins in condensed matter order ferromagnetically, their ground-state wave function is topologically trivial. Nonetheless, in two dimensions, ferromagnets can support spin excitations with nontrivial topology, an exotic state known as topological magnon insulator (TMI). Here, we theoretically unveil and numerically confirm a ferromagnetic state in three dimensions dubbed second-order TMI, whose hallmarks are excitations at its hinges, where facets intersect. Since ferromagnetism naturally comes with broken time-reversal symmetry, the hinge magnons are chiral, rendering backscattering impossible. Hence, they trace out three-dimensional paths about the sample unimpeded by defects and are topologically protected by the spectral gap. They are remarkably robust against disorder and highly tunable by atomic-level engineering of the sample termination. We predict that a van der Waals heterostructure built from chromium trihalide and transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers exhibits second-order magnon topology. Our findings empower magnonics, the harnessing of spin waves as information carriers, with the tools of higher-order topology, a promising route to combine low-energy information transfer free of Joule heating with three-dimensional vertical integration.

Topological magnon insulator spin excitations in the two-dimensional ferromagnet CrBr3

Topological magnons are bosonic analogues of topological fermions in electronic systems. They have been studied extensively by theory but rarely realized by experiment. Here, by performing inelastic neutron scattering measurements on single crystals of a two-dimensional ferromagnet CrBr$_3$, which was classified as Dirac magnon semimetal featured by the linear bands crossing at the Dirac points, we fully map out the magnetic excitation spectra, and reveal that there is an apparent gap of $\sim$3.5~meV between the acoustic and optical branches of the magnons at the K point. By collaborative efforts between experiment and theoretical calculations using a five-orbital Hubbard model obtained from first-principles calculations to derive the exchange parameters, we find that a Hamiltonian with Heisenberg exchange interactions, next-nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, and single-ion anisotropy is more appropriate to describe the system. Calculations using the model show that the lower and upper magnon bands separated by the gap exhibit Chern numbers of $\pm1$. These results indicate that CrBr$_3$ is a topological magnon insulator, where the nontrivial gap is a result of the DM interaction.

Einstein-de Haas effect of topological magnons

We predict the existence of Einstein-de Haas effect in topological magnon insulators. Temperature variation of angular momentum in the topological state shows a sign change behavior, akin to the low temperature thermal Hall conductance response. This manifests itself as a macroscopic mechanical rotation of the material hosting topological magnons. We show that an experimentally observable Einstein-de Haas effect can be measured in the square-octagon, the kagome, and the honeycomb lattices. Albeit, the effect is the strongest in the square-octagon lattice. We treat both the low and the high temperature phases using spin wave and Schwinger boson theory, respectively. We propose an experimental set up to detect our theoretical predictions. We suggest candidate square-octagon materials where our theory can be tested.

Interaction-Stabilized Topological Magnon Insulator in Ferromagnets

Condensed matter systems admit topological collective excitations above a trivial ground state, an example being Chern insulators formed by Dirac bosons with a gap at finite energies. However, in contrast to electrons, there is no particle-number conservation law for collective excitations. This gives rise to particle number-nonconserving many-body interactions whose influence on single-particle topology is an open issue of fundamental interest in the field of topological quantum materials. Taking magnons in ferromagnets as an example, we uncover topological magnon insulators that are stabilized by interactions through opening Chern-insulating gaps in the magnon spectrum. This can be traced back to the fact that the particle-number nonconserving interactions break the effective time-reversal symmetry of the harmonic theory. Hence, magnon-magnon interactions are a source of topology that can introduce chiral edge states, whose chirality depends on the magnetization direction. Importantly, interactions do not necessarily cause detrimental damping but can give rise to topological magnons with exceptionally long lifetimes. We identify two mechanisms of interaction-induced topological phase transitions---one driven by an external field, the other by temperature---and show that they cause unconventional sign reversals of transverse transport signals, in particular of the thermal Hall conductivity. We identify candidate materials where this many-body mechanism is expected to occur, such as the metal-organic kagome-lattice magnet Cu(1,3-benzenedicarboxylate), the van der Waals honeycomb-lattice magnet CrI$_3$, and the multiferroic kamiokite (Fe$_2$Mo$_3$O$_8$). Our results demonstrate that interactions can play an important role in generating nontrivial topology.

Local probes for charge-neutral edge states in two-dimensional quantum magnets

The bulk-boundary correspondence is a defining feature of topological states of matter. However, for quantum magnets such as spin liquids or topological magnon insulators a direct observation of topological surface states has proven challenging because of the charge-neutral character of the excitations. Here we propose spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy as a spin-sensitive local probe to provide direct information about charge neutral topological edge states. We show how their signatures, imprinted in the local structure factor, can be extracted by specifically employing the strengths of existing technologies. As our main example, we determine the dynamical spin correlations of the Kitaev honeycomb model with open boundaries. We show that by contrasting conductance measurements of bulk and edge locations, one can extract direct signatures of the existence of fractionalized excitations and non-trivial topology. The broad applicability of this approach is corroborated by a second example of a kagome topological magnon insulator.

Selective flattening of magnon bands in kagome-lattice ferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

There is growing interest in revealing exotic properties of collective spin excitations in kagome-lattice ferromagnets such as magnon Hall effects, topological magnon insulators, and flat magnon bands. Using the well-established nearest-neighbor Heisenberg ferromagnet model with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), in this study we uncover intriguing new aspects in the selectivity and topology of flat magnon bands. Among the three magnon bands (except for the top one, which is flat in the absence of DMI), we observe that each of the three bands can be selectively flattened at the critical DMI of $$D=\pm\sqrt{3}J/3$$ and $$D=\pm\sqrt{3}J$$ . With a general DMI, the magnon bands become non-flat; however, there are nested lines that create a David star pattern for all three magnon bands whose flatness is robust during changing exchange coupling or DMIs. Contrary to prevailing belief, we show that each of the three flat bands is actually topologically trivial at critical DMIs. Furthermore, we show that while the middle band remains topologically trivial, for the other two bands, D = 0 corresponds to the topological phase transition where their Chern numbers get interchanged; when $$D=\pm\sqrt{3}J$$ , the system undergoes a phase transition to the nonferromagnetic state. These central findings increase our understanding of spin excitations for future magnonics applications.

Topological magnon amplification

Topology is quickly becoming a cornerstone in our understanding of electronic systems. Like their electronic counterparts, bosonic systems can exhibit a topological band structure, but in real materials it is difficult to ascertain their topological nature, as their ground state is a simple condensate or the vacuum, and one has to rely instead on excited states, for example a characteristic thermal Hall response. Here we propose driving a topological magnon insulator with an electromagnetic field and show that this causes edge mode instabilities and a large non-equilibrium steady-state magnon edge current. Building on this, we discuss several experimental signatures that unambiguously establish the presence of topological magnon edge modes. Furthermore, our amplification mechanism can be employed to power a topological travelling-wave magnon amplifier and topological magnon laser, with applications in magnon spintronics. This work thus represents a step toward functional topological magnetic materials.