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Role of magnetic ions in the thermal Hall effect of the paramagnetic insulator TmVO
In a growing number of materials, phonons have been found to generate a
thermal Hall effect, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. Inspired by
previous studies that revealed the importance of Tb ions in generating
the thermal Hall effect of TbTiO, we investigated the role of
Tm ions in TmVO, a paramagnetic insulator with a different crystal
structure. We observe a negative thermal Hall conductivity in TmVO with a
magnitude such that the Hall angle, /, is
approximately 1 x 10 at = 15 T and = 20 K, typical for a
phonon-generated thermal Hall effect. In contrast to the negligible
found in YTiO, we observe a negative
in YVO with a Hall angle of magnitude comparable to that of
TmVO. This shows that the Tm ions are not essential for the
thermal Hall effect in this family of materials. Interestingly, at an
intermediate Y concentration of 30 % in TmYVO,
was found to have a positive sign, pointing to the possible
importance of impurities in the thermal Hall effect of phonons