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Transport signature of the magnetic Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition

by Se Kwon Kim, Suk Bum Chung

This Submission thread is now published as

Submission summary

Authors (as registered SciPost users): Suk Bum Chung
Submission information
Preprint Link: scipost_202102_00030v1  (pdf)
Date accepted: 2021-03-05
Date submitted: 2021-02-22 10:29
Submitted by: Chung, Suk Bum
Submitted to: SciPost Physics
Ontological classification
Academic field: Physics
Specialties:
  • Condensed Matter Physics - Theory
  • Statistical and Soft Matter Physics
Approach: Theoretical

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental progress in 2D magnetism, we theoretically study spin transport in 2D easy-plane magnets at finite temperatures across the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition, by developing a duality mapping to the 2+1D electromagnetism with the full account of spin's finite lifetime. In particular, we find that the non-conservation of spin gives rise to a distinct signature across the BKT transition, with the spin current decaying with distance power-law (exponentially) below (above) the transition; this is detectable in the proposed experiment with NiPS$_3$ and CrCl$_3$.

Author comments upon resubmission

We would like to thank both Referees for their constructive and appreciative comments.
We have made all the requested changes, as we are listing below.

List of changes

1. We have added in Introduction the new references to the recent CrCl3 experiment and the thin film melting transition experiments.

2. We have addressed the terminology issue in the sentence of Eq 4.

3. We have added to the footnote of Eq 4a an explanation on how the Rayleigh dissipation term gives rise to the finite spin lifetime.

4. In the caption to Fig 2, we have added a mention of temperature window where the free meron density follows the BKT formula, and we have revised Fig 2 itself so that all curves are plotted for temperature sufficiently close to T_BKT.

5. We have added a footnote to the penultimate sentence of Conclusion to note a case where the in-plane anisotropy does not
qualitatively affect the BKT transition.

Published as SciPost Phys. 10, 068 (2021)

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