Topological thermal Hall effect of magnons in magnetic skyrmion lattice

Abstract

Topological transport of fermions is governed by the Chern numbers of the energy bands lying below the Fermi energy. For bosons, e.g., phonons and magnons in a crystal, topological transport is dominated by the Chern number of the lowest energy band when the bandgap is comparable with the thermal energy. Here, we demonstrate the presence of topological transport by bosonic magnons in a lattice of magnetic skyrmions—topological defects formed by a vortexlike texture of spins. We find a distinct thermal Hall signal in the magnetic skyrmion phase of an insulating polar magnet GaV_{4}Se_{8}, identified as the topological thermal Hall effect of magnons governed by the Chern number of the lowest energy band of the magnons in a triangular lattice of magnetic skyrmions. Our findings lay a foundation for studying topological phenomena of other bosonic excitations via thermal Hall probe.