Tunable Magnon Weyl Points in Ferromagnetic Pyrochlores

Alexander Mook, Jürgen Henk, and Ingrid Mertig
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 157204 – Published 7 October 2016
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Abstract

The dispersion relations of magnons in ferromagnetic pyrochlores with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction are shown to possess Weyl points, i. e., pairs of topologically nontrivial crossings of two magnon branches with opposite topological charge. As a consequence of their topological nature, their projections onto a surface are connected by magnon arcs, thereby resembling closely Fermi arcs of electronic Weyl semimetals. On top of this, the positions of the Weyl points in reciprocal space can be tuned widely by an external magnetic field: rotated within the surface plane, the Weyl points and magnon arcs are rotated as well; tilting the magnetic field out of plane shifts the Weyl points toward the center Γ¯ of the surface Brillouin zone. The theory is valid for the class of ferromagnetic pyrochlores, i. e., three-dimensional extensions of topological magnon insulators on kagome lattices. In this Letter, we focus on the (111) surface, identify candidates of established ferromagnetic pyrochlores which apply to the considered spin model, and suggest experiments for the detection of the topological features.

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  • Received 25 June 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.157204

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Alexander Mook1, Jürgen Henk2, and Ingrid Mertig1,2

  • 1Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany
  • 2Institut für Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, D-06099 Halle (Saale), Germany

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Issue

Vol. 117, Iss. 15 — 7 October 2016

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