Gapped nodal planes drive a large topological Nernst effect in a chiral lattice antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This study reveals that gapped nodal planes in a chiral antiferromagnet induce a large topological Nernst effect, driven by near-degenerate electronic bands protected by lattice symmetries, with implications for functional material design.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates how gapped nodal planes and near-degenerate bands in a chiral antiferromagnet lead to a significant topological Nernst effect, supported by experimental and ab-initio modeling.

Findings

Near-degenerate bands at Brillouin zone boundaries.

Gapped nodal planes generate emergent magnetic fields.

Quantitative reproduction of Nernst effect via Wannier orbitals.

Abstract

The electronic structure of compensated antiferromagnets (CAF) has drawn attention for its ability to create large responses, reminiscent of ferromagnets and suitable for data storage and readout, despite (nearly) net-zero spontaneous magnetization. Many of the striking experimental signatures predicted for CAF, such as giant thermoelectric Nernst effects, are enhanced when two or more electronic bands are nearly degenerate in vicinity of the Fermi energy. Here, we use thermoelectric and electric transport experiments to study the electronic structure of the layered, chiral metal CoNb3S6 in its all-in-all-out CAF ground state and report near-degeneracies of electron bands at the upper and lower boundaries of the first Brillouin zone. Considering non-symmorphic spin-space group symmetries in the non-relativistic approximation for the ordered phase, these near-degeneracies are approximately protected by a lattice translation combined with spin rotation, and are vestiges of nodal planes enforced by a screw axis symmetry in the paramagnetic state. Hot spots of emergent, or fictitious, magnetic fields are formed at the slightly gapped nodal plane, generating the spontaneous Hall and Nernst effects in this CAF. Taking into account more than six hundred Wannier orbitals, our model quantitatively reproduces the observed spontaneous Nernst effect, emphasizes the role of proximate symmetries in the emergent responses of CAF, and demonstrates the promise of ab-initio search for functional responses in a wide class of materials with reconstructed unit cells due to spin or charge order.