Topological phase diagrams of in-plane field polarized Kitaev magnets

Abstract

While the existence of a magnetic field induced quantum spin liquid in Kitaev magnets remains under debate, its topological properties often extend to proximal phases where they can lead to unusual behaviors of both fundamental and applied interests. Subjecting a generic nearest-neighbor spin model of Kitaev magnets to a sufficiently strong in-plane magnetic field, we study the resulting polarized phase and the associated magnon excitations. In contrast to the case of an out-of-plane magnetic field where the magnon band topology is enforced by symmetry, we find that it is possible for topologically trivial and nontrivial parameter regimes to coexist under in-plane magnetic fields. We map out the topological phase diagrams of the magnon bands, revealing a rich pattern of variation of the Chern number over the parameter space and the field angle. We further compute the magnon thermal Hall conductivity as a weighted summation of Berry curvatures, and discuss experimental implications of our results to planar thermal Hall effects in Kitaev magnets. Published by the American Physical Society 2024