Large room temperature anomalous Nernst effect coupled with topological Nernst effect from incommensurate spin structure in a Kagome antiferromagnet

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of large room-temperature anomalous and topological Nernst effects in a kagome antiferromagnet, driven by incommensurate spin structures, with implications for thermoelectric applications.

Contribution

It reveals the coexistence of anomalous and topological Nernst effects at room temperature in a kagome antiferromagnet due to incommensurate spin structures, a novel finding in magnetic topological materials.

Findings

Room-temperature anomalous Nernst effect of ~1.3 μV/K observed.

Significant topological Nernst signal peaks at ~0.2 μV/K at 180 K.

Coupling of Nernst effects with incommensurate spin structure demonstrated.

Abstract

Kagome magnets exhibit a range of novel and nontrivial topological properties due to the strong interplay between topology and magnetism, which also extends to their thermoelectric applications. Recent advances in the study of magnetic topological materials have highlighted their intriguing anomalous Hall and thermoelectric effects, arising primarily from large intrinsic Berry curvature. Here, we report observation of a large room-temperature (RT) anomalous Nernst effects (ANE) of S_xy^A ~ 1.3 {\mu}V K^(-1) in the kagome antiferromagnet (AFM) ErMn6Sn6, which is comparable to the largest signals observed in known magnetic materials. Surprisingly, we further found that a significant topological Nernst signal at RT and peaking a maximum of approximately 0.2 {\mu}V K^(-1) at 180 K, exactly coupling with ANE in the spiral AFM state, originates from the real-space nonzero spin chirality caused by incommensurate spin structure. This study demonstrates a potential room-temperature thermoelectric application platform based on Nernst effect, and provides insights for discovering significant anomalous and topological transverse transport effects in the incommensurate AFM system.