Disentangling Exchange Mechanisms through Angular-Dependent Thermal Hall Effect in a Honeycomb Magnet

Layered honeycomb magnets provide a versatile platform for studying the interplay of anisotropic exchange interactions, magnetism, and thermal transport. However, distinct exchange mechanisms may lead to the same thermal and magnetic properties, making the dominant microscopic interactions hard to discern. In this work, we investigate the angular-dependent thermal transport properties in a ferromagnetic honeycomb material VI₃. The directional dependence in the thermal Hall response highlights the close lattice-geometry-spin-correlation coupling. In this talk, we will show that the directional thermal transport can be a sensitive diagnostic for resolving competitive magnetic interactions and revealing emergent topological phenomena in low-dimensional quantum magnets.