Topological phases of electrons induced by electron-magnon interactions

Abstract

Topological phases of electrons such as topological insulators and quantum Hall states typically require strong spin-orbit coupling or magnetic fields. In this study, we consider an electron system coupled to a spin system, where electrons interact with magnons, quasiparticles of spin waves. We show that the interaction between electrons and magnons transfers the effect of symmetry breaking in the spin system to the electron system, whereby a non-trivial topological phase can be induced in the electron system that is otherwise topologically trivial. Through this ``topology transfer'' mechanism, we demonstrate the realization of various topological phases, including quantum Hall and quantum spin Hall insulators, in simple ferromagnetic spin systems, without requiring strong spin-orbit coupling or external magnetic field for electron systems.

17 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (16)

• Quantum Spin Hall Effect and Topological Phase Transition in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Quantum Spin Hall Insulator State in HgTe Quantum Wells
• Observation of the Magnon Hall Effect
• Theoretical prediction of rotating magnon wavepacket in ferromagnets
• Signature of magnon Nernst effect in an antiferromagnetic insulator
• Topological Superconductivity Mediated by Skyrmionic Magnons
• Electron-magnon coupling and quasiparticle lifetimes on the surface of a topological insulator
• Interacting topological Dirac magnons
• Topological phase transition in magnon bands in a honeycomb ferromagnet driven by sublattice symmetry breaking
• Exchange splitting and exchange-induced non-reciprocal photonic behavior of graphene in CrI3-graphene vdW heterostructures
• Topological magnon gap engineering in van der Waals CrI${}_3$ ferromagnets
• Visualizing band selective enhancement of quasiparticle lifetime in a metallic ferromagnet
• Spin waves and orbital contribution to ferromagnetism in a topological metal
• Topological magnon-polarons in honeycomb antiferromagnets with spin-flop transition
• Magnon-mediated topological superconductivity in a quantum wire
• Tuning bulk topological magnon properties with light-induced magnons