Planar parallel phonon Hall effect and local symmetry breaking

TL;DR

This study reports the observation of a phonon-mediated planar parallel thermal Hall effect in Y-kapellasite, a clean insulator, attributed to local symmetry breaking caused by hydrogen atom positional freezing.

Contribution

It demonstrates the phonon Hall effect in Y-kapellasite due to local symmetry breaking, providing a clear case distinct from other materials with disorder.

Findings

Phonon Hall effect observed in Y-kapellasite.

Local symmetry breaking linked to hydrogen atom freezing.

Clean structure isolates phonon contribution.

Abstract

Y-kapellasite [Y3Cu9(OH)19Cl8] is a frustrated antiferromagnetic insulator which remains paramagnetic down to a remarkably low N\'eel temperature of about 2 K. Having studied this material in the paramagnetic regime, in which phonons are the only possible heat carriers, we report the observation of a planar parallel thermal Hall effect coming unambiguously from phonons. This is an advantage over the Kitaev quantum spin liquid candidates {\alpha}-RuCl3 and Na2Co2TeO6 where in principle other heat carriers can be involved [1-4]. As it happens, Y-kapellasite undergoes a structural transition attributed to the positional freezing of a hydrogen atom below about 33 K. Above this transition, the global crystal symmetry forbids the existence of a planar parallel signal - the same situation as in Na2Co2TeO6 and cuprates [3-5]. This points to the notion of a local symmetry breaking at the root of the phonon Hall effect. In this context, the advantage of Y-kapellasite over Na2Co2TeO6 (with high levels of Na disorder and stacking faults) and cuprates (with high levels of disorder coming from dopants and oxygen vacancies) is its clean structure, where the only degree of freedom available for local symmetry breaking is this hydrogen atom randomly distributed over six equivalent positions above 33 K. This provides a specific and concrete case for the general idea of local symmetry breaking leading to the phonon Hall effect in a wide range of insulators.