Topological Triplons in the Pinwheel Valence Bond Solid on the Kagome Lattice

Abstract

We investigate the triplon excitations of the pinwheel valence-bond-solid phase on the deformed kagome lattice compound Rb2Cu3SnF12. Using bond-operator mean-field theory, we compute the triplon band structure, dynamical structure factor, Berry curvatures and the associated thermal Hall response. We show that the presence of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions and an external magnetic field are key for endowing triplon bands with nontrivial Chern numbers. We find good qualitative agreement of the low-energy dynamical structure factor with neutron-scattering experiments. An applied magnetic field can isolate the lowest triplon Chern band leading to a tunable thermal Hall conductivity for accessible temperature and field regimes. Our results establish the deformed kagome pinwheel valence-bond solid as a promising platform for topological triplon physics and for observing the associated thermal Hall effect.