arXiv subjects

Thomas Boemerich

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Boemerich.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Generic Chiral Anomaly and Planar Hall Effect in a Non-Weyl System

The condensed-matter version of the chiral anomaly describes how electrons are pumped from a Weyl node with negative chirality to a Weyl node with positive chirality using parallel electric and magnetic fields. Key experimental signatures are a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) and the planar Hall effect (PHE), both of which have been experimentally observed. Here, we show that the chiral anomaly explains key features of magnetotransport in the nodal-line semimetal ZrTe$_5$ despite the absence of Weyl points. The anomaly physics applies generically to materials in the quantum limit, when electron transport becomes quasi-one-dimensional, provided that Fermi velocities remain sufficiently large. This explains not only the negative LMR but also the PHE with a gigantic Hall angle and a highly unusual magnetic-field-angle dependence in ZrTe$_5$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Parallel-Field Hall effect in ZrTe$_5$

Parallel-field Hall effect is the appearance of a Hall voltage $V_{\rm H}$ that is transverse to the current $I$ when the magnetic field $B$ is applied parallel to $I$ (i.e. $B \parallel I \perp V_{\rm H}$). Such an effect is symmetry forbidden in most cases and hence is very unusual. Interestingly, the existence of a finite parallel-field Hall effect was reported for the layered topological semimetal ZrTe$_5$ and was proposed to be due to Berry curvature. However, it is forbidden for the known symmetry of ZrTe$_5$ and the possible existence of a misaligned out-of-plane magnetic field was not completely ruled out. Here, we elucidate the existence of the parallel-field Hall effect in ZrTe$_5$ with careful magnetic-field alignment. We interpret this result to originate from symmetry breaking and quantitatively explain the observed parallel-field Hall signal by considering a tilting of the Fermi surface allowed by broken symmetry.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Nonlinear transport due to magnetic-field-induced flat bands in the nodal-line semimetal ZrTe5

The Dirac material ZrTe$_5$ at very low carrier density was recently found to be a nodal-line semimetal, where ultra-flat bands are expected to emerge in magnetic fields parallel to the nodal-line plane. Here we report that in very low carrier-density samples of ZrTe$_5$, when the current and the magnetic field are both along the crystallographic $a$ axis, the current-voltage characteristics presents a pronounced nonlinearity which tends to saturate in the ultra quantum limit. The magnetic-field dependence of the nonlinear coefficient is well explained by the Boltzmann theory for flat-band transport, and we argue that this nonlinear transport is likely due to the combined effect of flat bands and charge puddles, the latter appear due to very low carrier densities.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Gigantic magnetochiral anisotropy in the topological semimetal ZrTe5

Topological materials with broken inversion symmetry can give rise to nonreciprocal responses, such as the current rectification controlled by magnetic fields via magnetochiral anisotropy. Bulk nonreciprocal responses usually stem from relativistic corrections and are always very small. Here we report our discovery that ZrTe5 crystals in proximity to a topological quantum phase transition present gigantic magnetochiral anisotropy, which is the largest ever observed to date. We argue that a very low carrier density, inhomogeneities, and a torus-shaped Fermi surface induced by breaking of inversion symmetry in a Dirac material are central to explain this extraordinary property.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗