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Zhu F, Zhang L, Wang X, dos Santos FJ, Song J, Mueller T, Schmalzl K, Schmidt WF, Ivanov A, Park JT, Xu J, Ma J, Lounis S, Blügel S, Mokrousov Y, Su Y, Brückel T. Topological magnon insulators in two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnets CrSiTe 3 and CrGeTe 3: Toward intrinsic gap-tunability. Sci Adv 2021; 7:eabi7532. [PMID: 34516772 PMCID: PMC8442887 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/21/2021] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fengfeng Zhu
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, China
| | - Lichuan Zhang
- Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- Department of Physics, RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen, Germany
| | - Xiao Wang
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Flaviano José dos Santos
- Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- Theory and Simulation of Materials (THEOS), and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Junda Song
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Thomas Mueller
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Karin Schmalzl
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at ILL, Forschungszentrum Jülich, F-38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Wolfgang F. Schmidt
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at ILL, Forschungszentrum Jülich, F-38000 Grenoble, France
| | - Alexandre Ivanov
- Institut Laue-Langevin, 71 Avenue des Martyrs CS 20156, 38042 Grenoble Cedex 9, France
| | - Jitae T. Park
- Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Jianhui Xu
- Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technische Universität München, D-85747 Garching, Germany
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH, Hahn-Meitner-Platz 1, D-14109 Berlin, Germany
| | - Jie Ma
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240 Shanghai, China
| | - Samir Lounis
- Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- Faculty of Physics, University of Duisburg-Essen and CENIDE, 47053 Duisburg, Germany
| | - Stefan Blügel
- Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
| | - Yuriy Mokrousov
- Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich and JARA, 52425 Jülich, Germany
- Institute of Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, 55099 Mainz, Germany
| | - Yixi Su
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science (JCNS) at Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Lichtenbergstrasse 1, D-85747 Garching, Germany
| | - Thomas Brückel
- Jülich Centre for Neutron Science JCNS and Peter Grünberg Institut PGI, JARA-FIT, Forschungszentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
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