Chin. Phys. Lett.  2021, Vol. 38 Issue (5): 057501    DOI: 10.1088/0256-307X/38/5/057501
CONDENSED MATTER: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE, ELECTRICAL, MAGNETIC, AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES |
Itinerant Topological Magnons in SU(2) Symmetric Topological Hubbard Models with Nearly Flat Electronic Bands
Zhao-Long Gu1 and Jian-Xin Li1,2*
1National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
2Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
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Zhao-Long Gu and Jian-Xin Li 2021 Chin. Phys. Lett. 38 057501
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Abstract We show that a suitable combination of flat-band ferromagnetism, geometry and nontrivial electronic band topology can give rise to itinerant topological magnons. An $SU(2)$ symmetric topological Hubbard model with nearly flat electronic bands, on a Kagome lattice, is considered as the prototype. This model exhibits ferromagnetic order when the lowest electronic band is half-filled. Using the numerical exact diagonalization method with a projection onto this nearly flat band, we can obtain the magnonic spectra. In the flat-band limit, the spectra exhibit distinct dispersions with Dirac points, similar to those of free electrons with isotropic hoppings, or a local spin magnet with pure ferromagnetic Heisenberg exchanges on the same geometry. Significantly, the non-flatness of the electronic band may induce a topological gap at the Dirac points, leading to a magnonic band with a nonzero Chern number. More intriguingly, this magnonic Chern number changes its sign when the topological index of the electronic band is reversed, suggesting that the nontrivial topology of the magnonic band is related to its underlying electronic band. Our work suggests interesting directions for the further exploration of, and searches for, itinerant topological magnons.
Received: 07 February 2021      Published: 02 May 2021
PACS:  75.10.Lp (Band and itinerant models)  
  03.75.Lm (Tunneling, Josephson effect, Bose-Einstein condensates in periodic potentials, solitons, vortices, and topological excitations)  
  71.27.+a (Strongly correlated electron systems; heavy fermions)  
Fund: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11774152), and National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2016YFA0300401).
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https://cpl.iphy.ac.cn/10.1088/0256-307X/38/5/057501       OR      https://cpl.iphy.ac.cn/Y2021/V38/I5/057501
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Zhao-Long Gu and Jian-Xin Li
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