Interaction induced topological magnon in electron-magnon coupled systems

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.