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arXiv · 1412.6543

Observation of the chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5

Qiang Li·Dmitri E. Kharzeev·Cheng Zhang·Yuan Huang·I. Pletikosic·A. V. Fedorov·R. D. Zhong·J. A. Schneeloch·G. D. Gu·T. Valla
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Abstract

The chiral magnetic effect is the generation of electric current induced by chirality imbalance in the presence of magnetic field. It is a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum anomaly in relativistic field theory of chiral fermions (massless spin $1/2$ particles with a definite projection of spin on momentum) -- a dramatic phenomenon arising from a collective motion of particles and antiparticles in the Dirac sea. The recent discovery of Dirac semimetals with chiral quasi-particles opens a fascinating possibility to study this phenomenon in condensed matter experiments. Here we report on the first observation of chiral magnetic effect through the measurement of magneto-transport in zirconium pentatelluride, ZrTe_5. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments show that this material's electronic structure is consistent with a 3D Dirac semimetal. We observe a large negative magnetoresistance when magnetic field is parallel with the current. The measured quadratic field dependence of the magnetoconductance is a clear indication of the chiral magnetic effect. The observed phenomenon stems from the effective transmutation of Dirac semimetal into a Weyl semimetal induced by the parallel electric and magnetic fields that represent a topologically nontrivial gauge field background.

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Qiang Li, Dmitri E. Kharzeev, Cheng Zhang, Yuan Huang, I. Pletikosic, A. V. Fedorov, R. D. Zhong, J. A. Schneeloch, G. D. Gu, T. Valla. 2014-12-19. Observation of the chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3648

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