From frustrated magnetism to spontaneous Chern insulators

Abstract

We study the behaviour of electrons interacting with a classical magnetic background via a strong Hund coupling. The magnetic background results from a Hamiltonian which favours at low temperature the emergence of a phase with non-zero scalar chirality. The strong Hund's coupling combined with the total chirality of the classical spins induces in the electrons an effective flux which results in the realisation of a band structure with non zero Chern number. First, we consider as a magnetic background a classical spin system with spontaneous net chirality. We study the Density of States (DoS) and Hall conductance in order to analyse the topological transitions, as a function of the Fermi energy and the temperature of the classical spins. We also study a similar model in which the Chern number of the filled bands can be "tuned" with the external magnetic field, resulting in a topological insulator in which the direction of the chiral edge mode can be reverted by reversing the orientantion of the magnetic field applied to the classical magnetic system.

5 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Physical Review B