2024/11/27 by Tom Berlijn, Subramanian, Skandan, Berlijn, Tom +6
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Photonic Crystals and Applications #Spectral Theory in Mathematical Physics #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.18515
openalex publication_date 2024/11/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Motivated by the experimental identification of magnetic compounds consisting of zigzag chains, we analyze the band structure topology of magnons in ferromagnets on a zigzag lattice. We account for the general lattice geometry by including spatially anisotropic Heisenberg exchange interactions and by Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction on inversion asymmetric bonds. Within the linear spin-wave theory, we find two magnon branches, whose band structure topology (i.e., Chern numbers) we map out in a comprehensive phase diagram. Notably, besides topologically trivial and gapless phases, we identify topologically nontrivial phases that support chiral edge magnons. We show that these edge states are robust against elastic defect scattering.