Interaction induced topological magnon in electron-magnon coupled systems

TL;DR

This paper theoretically demonstrates that coupling ferromagnets with itinerant electrons can induce topological magnons through time-reversal symmetry breaking, even without Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, expanding possibilities for topological magnonics.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism for topological magnon emergence via electron-magnon coupling, without relying on strong Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, in heterostructures of ferromagnetic insulators and TMD monolayers.

Findings

Topological magnons can be induced without Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction.

Electron-magnon coupling breaks time-reversal symmetry in ferromagnets.

Trivial ferromagnets can host topological magnon bands when coupled to electrons.

Abstract

We theoretically study the emergence of topological magnons in electron-magnon coupled systems. The magnon dispersion in a ferromagnet usually possesses an effective time reversal symmetry in the absence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction, preventing the appearance of topological magnons. When a spin system is coupled to itinerant electrons, we find that the magnon band structure of the spin system experiences time-reversal symmetry breaking with the electron-magnon interaction via the exchange coupling, where topological magnons arise without requiring strong DM. Specifically, we consider a heterostructure consisting of a ferromagnetic insulator and a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) monolayer and investigate topological gap opening in magnon bands. Our findings reveal that even trivial ferromagnets can host topological magnons via coupling to itinerant electronic systems.