Thermal Hall Effect in the Kitaev-Heisenberg System with Spin-Phonon Coupling

Abstract

We investigate the thermal Hall effect in a Kitaev-Heisenberg system, a model for Kitaev candidate $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$, in the presence of the coupling between spin and phonon arising from chlorine atoms' vibration. We observe that the coupling modifies the relative stability between different magnetic states under a magnetic field, especially stabilizing a canted zigzag antiferromagnetic state. Remarkably, the spin-phonon interaction has distinct effects on the thermal Hall conductivity in different magnetically ordered states. For the canted zigzag state, which is relevant to $\alpha {\text{-RuCl}}_3$, the spin-phonon interaction enhances the energy gap that is induced by a magnetic field and suppresses the thermal Hall conductivity at low temperatures. Importantly, we find that the spin-phonon interaction destabilizes the quantized thermal Hall effect in the spin-liquid state. Our results demonstrate a crucial role of phonon degrees of freedom to the thermal Hall effect in Kitaev materials.

6 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (12)

• Planar Thermal Hall Effects in Kitaev Spin Liquid Candidate Na2Co2TeO6
• Flavor-wave theory with quasiparticle damping at finite temperatures: Application to chiral edge modes in the Kitaev model
• The Saga of $\alpha$-RuCl${}_3$: Parameters, Models, and Phase Diagrams
• Magnetic-field Induced Topological Transitions and Thermal Conductivity in a Generalized Kitaev Model
• Topological phase diagrams of in-plane field polarized Kitaev magnets
• Chiral magnon-polaron edge states in Heisenberg-Kitaev magnets
• Sound attenuation in the hyperhoneycomb Kitaev spin liquid
• Static and dynamical magnetic properties of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model with spin vacancies
• Real-time control of non-Abelian anyons in Kitaev spin liquid under energy dissipation
• Formulation of spin Nernst effect for spin-nonconserving insulating magnets
• Spin-phonon coupling and thermal Hall effect in the Kitaev model
• Emergent spacetime supersymmetry at 2D fractionalized quantum criticality