Topological Magnon Research Articles

Unified formulation of interfacial magnonic pumping from noncollinear magnets

We establish a general formulation for spin current pumped by magnons at the interface between a normal metal and a magnetic insulator, valid for any noncollinear magnetic configuration in the linear spin wave regime. This current is generated by driving the system in a nonequilibrium state, covering setups such as thermal spin injection (spin Seebeck effect) or spin voltage by irradiation of the insulator (spin pumping). We illustrate the formula in the special case of a honeycomb topological ferromagnet, for simplicity, and cover both the spin Seebeck and spin pumping setups. We show how the topological parameters influence the spin current and propose a way to obtain a contribution mainly from the topological edge magnons in the spin pumping case.

A perspective on magnon spin Nernst effect in antiferromagnets

Magnon excitations in antiferromagnetic materials and their physical implications have helped to facilitate the emergence of device concepts not presently available in ferromagnets. A unique characteristic of antiferromagnetic magnons is the coexistence of opposite spin polarization, which mimics the electron spin in a variety of transport phenomena. Among them, the most prominent spin-contrasting phenomenon is the magnon spin Nernst effect (SNE), which refers to the generation of a transverse pure magnon spin current through a longitudinal temperature gradient. We introduce selected recent progress in the study of magnon SNE in collinear antiferromagnets with focus on its underlying physical mechanism entailing profound topological features of magnon band structures. By reviewing how the magnon SNE has inspired and enriched the exploration of topological magnons, we offer our perspective on this emerging frontier that holds potential in future spintronic nano-technology.

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.

Intrinsic topological magnons in arrays of magnetic dipoles

We study a simple magnetic system composed of periodically modulated magnetic dipoles with an easy axis. Upon adjusting the geometric modulation amplitude alone, chains and two-dimensional stacked chains exhibit a rich magnon spectrum where frequency gaps and magnon speeds are easily manipulable. The blend of anisotropy due to dipolar interactions between magnets and geometrical modulation induces a magnetic phase with fractional Zak number in infinite chains and end states in open one-dimensional systems. In two dimensions it gives rise to topological modes at the edges of stripes. Tuning the amplitude in two-dimensional lattices causes a band touching, which triggers the exchange of the Chern numbers of the volume bands and switches the sign of the thermal conductivity.

Topological Magnon Band Crossing in Y2Ir2O7

Topological magnonic materials have attracted much interest because of the potential for dissipationless spintronic applications. Pyrochlore iridates are theoretically regarded as good candidates for designing topological magnon bands. However, experimental identification of topological magnon bands in pyrochlore iridates remains elusive. We explored this possibility in Y_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7} using Raman spectroscopy to measure both the single-magnon excitations and anomalous phonon shifts. From the single-magnon energies and tight-binding model calculations concerning the phonons, we determined the key parameters in the spin Hamiltonian. These confirm that Y_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7} hosts a nontrivial magnon band topology distinct from other pyrochlore iridate compounds. Our work demonstrates that pyrochlore iridates constitute a system in which the magnon band topology can be tailored and that Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique to explore magnon band topology.

Anomalous Thermal Hall Effect in an Insulating van der Waals Magnet.

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) magnets have been a fertile playground for the discovery and exploration of physical phenomena and new physics. In this Letter, we report the observation of an anomalous thermal Hall effect (THE) with κ_{xy}∼1×10^{-2} W K^{-1} m^{-1} in an insulating van der Waals ferromagnet VI_{3}. The thermal Hall signal persists in the absence of an external magnetic field and flips sign upon the switching of the magnetization. In combination with theoretical calculations, we show that VI_{3} exhibits a dual nature of the THE, i.e., dominated by topological magnons hosted by the ferromagnetic honeycomb lattice at higher temperatures and by phonons induced by the magnon-phonon coupling at lower temperatures. Our results not only position VI_{3} as the first ferromagnetic system to investigate both anomalous magnon and phonon THEs, but also render it as a potential platform for spintronics-magnonics applications.

Spin interactions and topological magnonics in chromium trihalide CrClBrI

The discovery of spontaneous magnetism in van der Waal (vdW) magnetic monolayers has opened up an unprecedented platform for investigating magnetism in purely two-dimensional systems. Recently, it has been shown that the magnetic properties of vdW magnets can be easily tuned by adjusting the relative composition of halides. Motivated by these experimental advances, here we derive a model for a trihalide CrClBrI monolayer from symmetry principles and we find that, in contrast to its single-halide counterparts, it can display highly anisotropic nearest- and next-to-nearest neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and Heisenberg interactions. Depending on the parameters, the DM interactions are responsible for the formation of exotic chiral spin states, such as skyrmions and spin cycloids, as shown by our Monte Carlo simulations. Focusing on a ground state with a two-sublattice unit cell, we find spin-wave bands with nonvanishing Chern numbers. The resulting magnon edge states yield a magnon thermal Hall conductivity that changes sign as function of temperature and magnetic field, suggesting chromium trihalides as a candidate for testing topological magnon transport in two-dimensional noncollinear spin systems.

Topological Magnons: A Review

At sufficiently low temperatures, magnetic materials often enter correlated phases hosting collective, coherent magnetic excitations such as magnons or triplons. Drawing on the enormous progress on topological materials of the past few years, recent research has led to new insights into the geometry and topology of these magnetic excitations. Berry phases associated with magnetic dynamics can lead to observable consequences in heat and spin transport, whereas analogs of topological insulators and semimetals can arise within magnon band structures from natural magnetic couplings. Magnetic excitations offer a platform to explore the interplay of magnetic symmetries and topology, drive topological transitions using magnetic fields, examine the effects of interactions on topological bands, and generate topologically protected spin currents at interfaces. In this review, we survey progress on all these topics, highlighting aspects of topological matter that are unique to magnon systems and the avenues yet to be fully investigated.

Interplay of topological electrons and magnons in the Kagome magnet CoCu3(OH)6Cl2

Spin and charge are two interrelated properties of electrons. Most of previous works on topological phases of matter tend to study the topological electronic bands and topological magnon excitations separately. In this work, by combining density functional theory and the Schwinger boson method, we determine the topological electronic band structure and topological magnon spectrum simultaneously in the ferromagnetic phase of CoCu3(OH)6Cl2. This Herbertsmithite material has an ABC-stacking Kagome-lattice structure with fractional occupancies on the Cu sites. We find that the hopping parameters of the electronic and magnonic bands can mutually influence each other and predict in further model studies the possibility of magnetically driven topological phase transitions in the electronic bands. Our study also provides a useful method to deal with correlated topological magnetic systems with narrow band gaps self-consistently.

Topological phase transition and thermal Hall effect in kagome ferromagnets

We investigate a mechanism for phase transitions between topological magnon phases on the breathing kagome lattice ferromagnets with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, which is induced by the lattice deformation. With the linear spin-wave theory, we calculate the magnonic Chern number, topological phase diagram, and magnon thermal Hall conductivity at low temperature with tunable modulated exchange interactions due to the lattice deformation. We show that the modulated exchange interactions and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction strength determine the band topology of magnons. We find a sign reversal of the thermal Hall conductivity during topological phase transitions explained in terms of topological edge modes and their propagation directions. We also discuss candidate materials to realize our ideas.

Dirac Surface States in Magnonic Analogs of Topological Crystalline Insulators.

We propose magnonic analogs of topological crystalline insulators which possess Dirac surface states protected by the combined symmetry of time reversal and half translation. Constructing models of the topological magnon systems, we demonstrate that an energy current flows through the systems in response to an electric field, owing to the Dirac surface states with the spin-momentum locking. We also propose a realization of the magnonic analogs of topological crystalline insulators in the magnetic compound CrI_{3} with a monoclinic structure.

Topological Weyl magnons and thermal Hall effect in layered honeycomb ferromagnets

In this work, we study the topological properties and magnon Hall effect of a three-dimensional ferromagnet in the ABC stacking honeycomb lattice, motivated by the recent inelastic neutron scattering study of $\mathrm{Cr}{\mathrm{I}}_{3}$. We show that the magnon band structure and Chern numbers of the magnon branches are significantly affected by the interlayer coupling ${J}_{c}$, which moreover has a qualitatively different effect in the ABC stacking compared to the AA stacking adopted by other authors. The nontrivial Chern number of the lowest magnon band is stabilized by the next-nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in each honeycomb layer, resulting in the hopping term similar to that in the electronic Haldane model for graphene. However, we also find several gapless Weyl points, separating the nonequivalent Chern insulating phases, tuned by the ratio of the interlayer coupling ${J}_{c}$ and the third-neighbor Heisenberg interaction ${J}_{3}$. We further show that the topological character of magnon bands results in nonzero thermal Hall conductivity, whose sign and magnitude depend on ${J}_{c}$ and the intralayer couplings. Since the interlayer coupling strength ${J}_{c}$ can be easily tuned by applying pressure to the quasi-2D material such as $\mathrm{Cr}{\mathrm{I}}_{3}$, this provides a potential route to tuning the magnon thermal Hall effect in an experiment.

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.

Skyrmion based magnonic crystals

Magnonics is now an attractive field which focuses on the dynamic characteristics of magnons, a kind of quasiparticles in magnetic media, and attempts to apply magnons for functional devices. In order to construct magnon-based devices, it is necessary to fabricate materials with specific and tunable magnon bands and bandgaps. Skyrmion-based magnonic crystal is one of the most suitable materials which possess periodical skyrmion structure and show applicative magnon bands and bandgaps. In this review, we provide an overview over recent theoretical and experimental research on skyrmion-based magnonic crystals. We will first provide an introduction of magnonic crystals and magnetic skyrmion. Then, we will show the theoretical and experimental progress on skyrmion-based magnonic crystals and their magnon band characteristics. At the end, we will give an outlook and perspectives of new fascinating fields on topological nontrivial magnon modes, as well as hybrid and quantum magnonic phenomena of skyrmion-based magnonic crystals.

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.

Topological properties of multilayer magnon insulators

Two-dimensional magnetic insulators can be promising hosts for topological magnons. In this study, we show that ABC-stacked honeycomb lattice multilayers with alternating Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) reveal a rich topological magnon phase diagram. Based on our bandstructure and Berry curvature calculations, we demonstrate jumps in the thermal Hall behavior that corroborate with topological phase transitions triggered by adjusting the DMI and interlayer coupling. We connect the phase diagram of generic multilayers to a bilayer and a trilayer system. We find an even-odd effect amongst the multilayers where the even layers show no jump in thermal Hall conductivity, but the odd layers do. We also observe the presence of topological proximity effect in our trilayer. Our results offer new schemes to manipulate Chern numbers and their measurable effects in topological magnonic systems.

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.

Unusual spin pseudogap behavior in the spin web lattice Cu3TeO6 probed by Te125 nuclear magnetic resonance

We present a $^{125}\mathrm{Te}$ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study in the three-dimensional spin web lattice ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{3}\mathrm{Te}{\mathrm{O}}_{6}$ which harbors topological magnons. The $^{125}\mathrm{Te}$ NMR spectra and the Knight-shift $\mathcal{K}$ as a function of temperature show a drastic change at ${T}_{\mathrm{S}}\ensuremath{\sim}40\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ much lower than the N\'eel ordering temperature ${T}_{\mathrm{N}}\ensuremath{\sim}61\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, providing evidence for the first-order structural phase transition within the magnetically ordered state. Most remarkably, the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate ${T}_{1}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ unravels spin-gap-like magnetic excitations, which sharply sets in at ${T}^{*}\ensuremath{\sim}75\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, the temperature well above ${T}_{\mathrm{N}}$. The spin-gap behavior may be understood by weakly dispersive optical magnon branches of high-energy spin excitations originating from the unique corner-sharing Cu hexagon spin-1/2 network with low coordination number.

Hybrid topological magnon-phonon modes in ferromagnetic honeycomb and kagome lattices

Magnons and phonons are two fundamental neutral excitations of magnetically ordered materials which can significantly dominate the low-energy thermal properties. In this work we study the interplay of magnons and phonons in honeycomb and Kagome lattices. When the mirror reflection with respect to the magnetic ordering direction is broken, the symmetry-allowed in-plane Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction will couple the magnons to the phonons and the magnon-polaron states are formed. Besides, both lattice structures also allow for an out-of-plane DM interaction rendering the uncoupled magnons to be topological. Our aim is to study the interplay of such topological magnons with phonons. We show that the hybridization between magnons and phonons can significantly redistribute the Berry curvature among the bands. Especially, we found that the topological magnon band becomes trivial while the hybridized states at lower energy acquire Berry curvature strongly peaked near the avoided crossings. As such the thermal Hall conductivity of topological magnons shows significant changes due to coupling to the phonons.

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.