Fate of Topological Dirac Magnons in van der Waals Ferromagnets at Finite Temperature
Abstract
Dirac magnons, the bosonic counterparts of Dirac fermions in graphene, provide a versatile platform to explore symmetry-protected band crossings and quantum geometry in magnetic insulators while promising high-velocity, low-dissipation spin transport for next-generation magnonic technologies. However, their stability under realistic, finite-temperature conditions remains an open question. Here, we develop a microscopic theory of thermal magnon-magnon interactions in van der Waals honeycomb ferromagnets, focusing on both gapless and gapped Dirac magnons. Using nonlinear spin-wave theory with magnon self-energy corrections and a T -matrix resummation that captures two-magnon bound states, we quantitatively reproduce temperature- and momentum-dependent energy shifts and linewidths observed experimentally in the gapless Dirac magnon material CrBr 3 , even near the Curie temperature. Our approach provides a consistent interpretation of theoretical predictions and experiment shedding light on the role of bound states in enhancing magnon damping at low temperatures. For gapped Dirac magnon materials such as CrI 3 , CrSiTe 3 , and CrGeTe 3 , we find a thermally induced reduction of the topological magnon gap, while no indication of thermally driven topological phase transitions is observed within the considered parameter range. Classical atomistic spin-dynamics simulations corroborate the gap’s robustness up to the Curie temperature. Furthermore, we establish a practical criterion for observing topological gaps by determining the minimum ratio of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction to Heisenberg exchange required to overcome thermal broadening throughout the ordered phase, typically around 5%. Taken together, our results elucidate the interplay between thermal many-body effects and topology in low-dimensional magnetic systems and provide a controlled framework for the interpretation of spectroscopic measurements.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Topological Materials and Phenomena
2D Materials and Applications
Graphene research and applications
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Physical Review X
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Volume
- 16
- Issue
- 2
- Publication date
- 24 April 2026
- Language
- EN