Topological charge-entropy scaling relation was proved in the kagome Chern magnet, a kind of magnet predicted to support intrinsic Chern quantum phases, according to a finding published on Nature Communications.
This research was conducted by a collaborated team led by Prof. QU Zhe from the High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Prof. JIA Shuang from Peking University. According to Prof. QU, this study has promoted understanding on the transport properties of magnetic topological materials.
The magnetic topological material has been a hot research topic considering its prospect of realizing a variety of novel quantum states. Complicated by the quantum field arising from the topological quasi-particles, however, a fundamental description of how the electrons conduct electricity and heat, namely the relation between charge and entropy, remains elusive.
RMn6Sn6 (R=rare earth element) is a new family of topological magnets. The pure Mn kagome lattice they hosted enabled a modelized study on its quantum transport.
In this research, motivated by their advance in rare-earth engineering of the Chern gap in this material family, the team carried out comprehensive studies of electric, thermal and thermoelectric transport in TbMn6Sn6.
Researchers found that all the known measurable quantum transports for a bulk crystal, including angular quantum oscillations, anomalous Hall, anomalous Nernst and anomalous thermal Hall effect, could be ubiquitously described by a simple yet fundamental Chern-gapped Dirac model, which was unprecedented in any known quantum materials.
Especially, they first discovered a topological charge-entropy scaling relation that went well beyond conventional electron behaviors expected by the Mott relation and Wiedemann-Franz law.
"This could have vast implications," said Dr. XU Xitong, first author of the paper, "this points to a direct transport visualization of Chern gapped Dirac fermions, and has the potential to become a seminal work in understanding the quantum transport in topological magnets."
Topological charge-entropy scaling in kagome Chern magnet TbMn6Sn6 (Image by XU Xitong)
