Intrinsic thermal Hall effect of optical phonons enhanced by discrete rotational symmetry

TL;DR

This paper reveals that optical phonons in cubic systems exhibit an intrinsic thermal Hall effect enhanced by discrete rotational symmetry, with a unique nonlinear magnetic field dependence and complex temperature behavior.

Contribution

It demonstrates how symmetry-induced Berry curvature peaks lead to a significantly enhanced thermal Hall conductivity in optical phonons.

Findings

Thermal Hall conductivity is sharply peaked near high-symmetry lines.

The conductivity shows a nonlinear B ln B dependence on magnetic field.

It exhibits a non-monotonic temperature dependence, reversing sign at high temperatures.

Abstract

We investigate the intrinsic thermal Hall conductivity contributed by optical phonons in a cubic system. The discrete rotational symmetry of the system splits the degeneracy of transverse modes across most regions of wave-vector space, except along a few high-symmetry lines. Consequently, in the presence of an external magnetic field, phonon Berry curvatures become sharply peaked near these high-symmetry lines. We find that the singular distribution of the Berry curvature induces an intrinsic thermal Hall conductivity that is significantly enhanced compared to an isotropic system. It exhibits a nonlinear $B\ln B$ dependence on the magnetic field $B$ and a non-monotonic temperature dependence. At elevated temperatures, it reverses sign and approaches a non-vanishing value asymptotically. Our analysis indicates that the behavior results from competition between contributions from Berry curvatures near different high-symmetry lines.