High Chern numbers and topological flat bands in high-field polarized Kitaev magnets on the star lattice

Abstract

The geometrically frustrated Kitaev magnets are demonstrated to be fertile playgrounds that allow for the occurrence of exotic phenomena, including topological phases and the thermal Hall effect. Notwithstanding the established consensus that the field-polarized phase in the honeycomb-lattice Kitaev magnet hosts topological magnons exhibiting Chern numbers $C=\pm 1$, the nature of magnon excitations in Kitaev magnets on the star lattice, a triangle-decorated honeycomb lattice, has rarely been explored primarily due to its complicated geometry. To this end, we study the band topology of magnons on the star lattice in the presence of a strong out-of-plane magnetic field using linear spin-wave theory. By calculating the Chern numbers of magnon bands, we find that topological phase diagrams are predominantly composed of two distinct topological phases whose Chern numbers are different by a sign in inverse order. Remarkably, each phase is characterized by a high Chern number of either $+2$ or $-2$. In addition, several topological flat bands with large flatness are identified. The two phases are separated by a dozen narrow topological high-Chern-number segments, whose region shrinks as the magnetic field increases and vanishes eventually. We also find that the thermal Hall conductivity approaches zero at certain parameters, and it changes (keeps) its sign when crossing the topological phase-transition points (flat-band points).

(10+ε)+4 pages, 7+8 figures, 1 table. Phys. Rev. B to appear

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