arXiv subjects

Zengwei Zhu

Publications and source records attributed to Zengwei Zhu.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Electron-phonon coupled hydrodynamics in semimetal TaAs_2

Hydrodynamic corrections to diffusive transport can arise when momentum-conserving collisions between quasiparticles become prominent, and they have been documented for both electrons and phonons. An emerging frontier topic is coupled electron-phonon (e-ph) hydrodynamics. Here, through electrical and thermal transport measurements on TaAs2 crystals with different impurity levels, we document the emergence of an e-ph bifluid in the temperature window of 5 to 15 K. Within this range, the lattice thermal conductivity exhibits a faster-than-T^3 temperature dependence, as a consequence of non-monotonic and purity-dependent phonon mean free paths, a signature of phonon Poiseuille flow. However, strong e-ph coupling impedes the emergence of a ballistic regime. This is corroborated by the observation of quantum oscillations in the lattice thermal conductivity. Prominent phonon-mediated momentum exchange between electrons amplifies the violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law and yields a two-order-of-magnitude discrepancy between quantum and transport lifetimes, a signature of electron hydrodynamics in semimetals. Our results imply that in semimetals with optimized e-ph coupling, thanks to matching between the cryogenic phonon wave?length and the Fermi wavelength, momentum and energy flow between the electron and phonon reservoirs as frequently as within each reservoir.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Density-wave order enhances the phonon thermal Hall effect in a trilayer nickelate

Ruddlesden--Popper nickelates have emerged as a promising platform for high-temperature superconductivity, yet the role of lattice degrees of freedom in their correlated normal state remains largely unexplored. Here, we report the observation of a finite phonon thermal Hall effect in the trilayer nickelate La$_4$Ni$_3$O$_{10}$ at ambient pressure. Remarkably, the thermal Hall response is strongly enhanced below the density-wave transition at $T^*\approx140$ K, exhibiting two distinct plateaus in the thermal Hall resistivity. The characteristic energy scale extracted from the thermal Hall response ($\sim4.1$ meV) closely matches the magnon--phonon crossing span energy ($\sim3.2$ meV), pointing to magnon--phonon hybridization as the primary mechanism enhancing the thermal Hall effect. These results provide new insight into the interplay between lattice and spin excitations in nickelates, with implications for understanding both their superconductivity and the multiple possible origins of insulating thermal Hall signals.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Multiband transport hierarchy and large Nernst effect in EuAuBi: Establishing a Nernst scaling for asymmetric multiband systems

In correlated materials, coexisting pockets of vastly different carrier densities raise two fundamental questions: which pocket governs the various transport coefficients, and does the conventional Nernst scaling $\nu/T \propto \mu/E_F$, originally derived for single-band systems, still hold? We address both questions in the polar semimetal EuAuBi, where a dilute electron pocket ($n_e \sim 10^{16}~\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$) coexists with a dense hole pocket ($n_h \sim 10^{21}~\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$). We find a clear hierarchy: the hole pocket dominates the longitudinal resistivity; the Hall effect crosses from electron- to hole-dominance with increasing field; the Seebeck coefficient is dominated by the electron pocket at low temperature and by both pockets at high temperature. Remarkably, the Nernst effect is governed entirely by the ultrahigh-mobility electron pocket, yielding a large low-field signal of $\sim 5~\mu\mathrm{V/K}$ near 1~T at 202~K, comparable to anomalous Nernst signals in magnetic Weyl semimetals. By analyzing the two-band thermoelectric conductivity, we show that the Nernst coefficient follows a scaling $\nu/T \propto \mu_e/{E_{F, tot}}$. This scaling originates from a compensation between the electron-to-hole conductivity ratio and the Fermi-energy ratio, establishing that the large Nernst effect is a semiclassical multiband phenomenon rather than a topological Berry-curvature contribution. This understanding advances the thermoelectric transport physics of multiband electronic systems and offers a guiding principle for low-field transverse thermoelectric design.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Pulsed thermal annealing enables switching of chiral antiferromagnetic order with a sub-millitesla field in Mn$_3$Sn

The manipulation of antiferromagnetic (AFM) order is a central theme in modern spintronics. In this work, we achieve reliable switching of the chiral AFM state in the Weyl antiferromagnet Mn$_3$Sn using a heat pulse combined with a very small magnetic field as small as 0.1 mT. By systematically measuring the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in high-quality single crystals, we show that the field needed for switching decreases as the temperature approaches the N\'eel temperature $T_N$, and vanishes at $T_N$. Pulsed thermal annealing above $T_N$ followed by cooling in a tiny external field enables full and reproducible switching of the magnetic octupole order. Our results show that thermal softening (heating above $T_N$ to temporarily remove the magnetic anisotropy) is a key step that lowers the energy barrier to nearly zero. This allows an extremely weak directional field (like the effective field from spin-orbit torque in thin-film devices) to set the final magnetic state during cooling. We also provide a simple model to estimate the temperature rise in nanoscale devices under current pulses, giving practical guidance for device design. This work highlights that thermal effects are not a side issue but an important partner to spin torques, and suggests that future work should take both into account.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Hydrodynamics of the viscous electron fluid in cadmium

Thanks to electron-electron ($e$-$e$) collisions conserving momentum, metallic electron fluids are viscous. Yet, this viscosity is rarely detectable in bulk transport. Here, we report on the canonical realization of the Gurzhi effect in an elemental three-dimensional metal: cadmium. Using focused ion beam microstructuring to tune the effective thickness, we detected a low-temperature size-dependent resistivity upturn in a finite window sandwiched between ballistic and diffusive regimes. Within this window, the electrical conductivity displays a simultaneous quadratic dependence on both sample size and temperature -- fingerprint of a hydrodynamic flow. This leads us to quantify the amplitude and the temperature dependence of kinematic and dynamic viscosity of the electron fluid. In cadmium, in contrast with graphene and $^3$He, the rate of momentum-conserving $e$-$e$ collisions is not set by the main Fermi energy, but by Lilliputian energy scales and inter-valley bottlenecks.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Interaction driven transverse thermal resistivity in a phonon gas

The amplitude of the Hall response of electrons can be understood without invoking interactions. Most theories of the phonon thermal Hall effect have likewise opted for a non-interacting picture. Here, we challenge this approach. Our study of WS$_2$, a transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) insulator, finds that longitudinal, $\kappa_{xx}$, and transverse, $\kappa_{xy}$, thermal conductivities peak at almost the same temperature. Their ratio obeys an upper bound, as in other insulators. We then compare transverse thermal transport in a phonon gas and in a molecular gas. In the latter, the Senftleben-Beenakker effect is driven by the competition between molecular collisions and applied magnetic field in setting the distribution of molecular angular momenta. An off-diagonal transport response arises thanks to interactions between non-spherical particles, which do not need to be chiral. By analogy, we argue that in a phonon gas, magnetic field will influence phonon-phonon interactions, and generates a transverse thermal \emph{resistivity}, whose order of magnitude can be accounted for by invoking a Berry force on the drift velocity of the nuclei in the presence of a finite heat. This simple picture gives a reasonable account of the experimentally measured transverse thermal resistivity of seven different crystalline insulators.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Giant anomalous Hall conductivity in frustrated magnet EuCo2Al9

The interaction between conduction electrons and localized magnetic moments profoundly influences the electrical and magnetic properties of materials, giving rise to a variety of fascinating physical phenomena and quantum effects. Here, we discover a giant anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in a frustrated Eu-based magnet, exhibiting a giant anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC) of 31000 {\Omega}-1cm-1 and a remarkable anomalous Hall angle (AHA, tan{\theta}H) of 12 %--surpassing conventional mechanisms (either intrinsic or extrinsic) by two orders of magnitude. Combining magnetotransport, quantum oscillations, neutron diffraction and ab initio calculations, we establish that the giant AHC originates from fluctuating spin chirality skew scattering, generated by indirect Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions of Eu-4f moments. Simultaneously, Hund's coupling of itinerant electrons and localized Eu-4f spins triggers giant exchange splitting, evidenced by temperature-dependent Fermi surface reconstruction. This work establishes a frustrated magnetic platform for engineering the AHE and elucidates the governing role of exchange interactions and spin textures in quantum transport, while also providing a framework for designing unconventional spintronic systems that harness emergent spin-texture dynamics.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Pauli-limited upper critical field and anisotropic depairing effect of La2.82Sr0.18Ni2O7 superconducting thin film

We investigate the upper critical field and superconducting anisotropy of epitaxial La2.82Sr0.18Ni2O7 thin films, which show a sharp superconducting transition at Tc=31.6 K. Near Tc, superconductivity exhibits thickness-limited two-dimensional characteristics. Upon cooling, the out-of-plane coherence length decreases below the sample thickness of 6 nm, corresponding to a 3-unit-cell film, indicating a crossover to intrinsic three-dimensional bulk superconductivity. High-field transport measurements reveal large upper critical fields with a small anisotropy ratio gama~1.34, comparable to bulk Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates. At low temperatures, the in-plane (ab) upper critical field Hc2(ab) is strongly suppressed by spin-paramagnetic pair breaking and approaches the Pauli limit (Hc2(Pauli)=58 T), while Hc2(c) remains largely unaffected. This anisotropic Pauli limitation accounts for the reduced upper critical field anisotropy and supports the conclusion that superconductivity in these films is fundamentally three-dimensional bulk like. Our results highlight the essential role of spin-paramagnetic effects in shaping the high-field superconducting phase diagram of Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Field manipulation of Weyl modes in an ideal Dirac semimetal

The emergent Weyl modes with the broken time-reversal symmetry or inversion symmetry provide large Berry curvature and chirality to carriers, offering the realistic platforms to explore topology of electrons in three-dimensional systems. However, the reversal transition between different types of Weyl modes in a single material, which is of particular interest in the fundamental research in Weyl physics and potential application in spintronics, is scarcely achieved due to restriction of inborn symmetry in crystals. Here, by tuning the direction and strength of magnetic field in an ideal Dirac semimetal, Bi4(Br0.27I0.73)4, we report the realization of multiple Weyl modes, including gapped Weyl mode, Weyl nodal ring, and coupled Weyl mode by the magnetoresistivity measurements and electronic structure calculations. Specifically, under a magnetic field with broken mirror symmetry, anomalous Hall effect with step feature results from the large Berry curvature for the gapped Weyl mode. A prominent negative magnetoresistivity is observed at low magnetic field with preserved mirror symmetry and disappears at high magnetic field, which is correlated to the chiral anomaly and its annihilation of Weyl nodal ring, respectively. Our findings reveal distinct Weyl modes under the intertwined crystal symmetry and time-reversal breaking, laying the foundation of manipulating multiple Weyl modes in chiral spintronic network.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Phonon Thermal Hall Effect: The Roles of Disorder, Annealing, and Metallic Contacts

The phonon thermal Hall effect (THE) is a ubiquitous yet poorly understood phenomenon in insulators. Its microscopic origin remains debated, partly due to significant sample-dependent variations that hint at uncontrolled experimental parameters. Using SrTiO$_3$ as a model system, we identify disorder and uncontrolled strain as suppressors of a thermal Hall signal. Crystals with high thermal conductivity exhibit a substantial thermal Hall angle $\nabla T_y / \nabla T_x$ (up to 0.3\% at 9 T), whereas the effect is virtually absent in disordered samples. Crucially, annealing (in air atmosphere) these disordered samples partially restores the THE (approximately 0.1\% at 9 T) with little effect on the longitudinal thermal conductivity. This decoupling reveals that the amplitude of THE is not simply set by the phonon mean free path. Furthermore, measurements performed with metallic and insulating contacts yield identical results on the same sample. This definitively rules out parasitic signals as the effect's origin. Our work, by establishing the phonon THE as an intrinsic property of the crystal lattice and extremely sensitive to disorder, sharply constrains theoretical scenarios.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Thermal Hall conductivity of semimetallic graphite dominated by ambipolar phonon drag

It is now known that in addition to electrons, other quasi-particles such as phonons and magnons can also generate a thermal Hall signal. Graphite is a semimetal with extremely mobile charge carriers of both signs and a large lattice thermal conductivity. We present a study of the thermal Hall effect in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) samples with electronic, phononic and phonon drag contributions to the thermal Hall signal. The measured thermal Hall conductivity ($\kappa_{xy}$) is two orders of magnitude higher than what is expected by electronic carriers according to the electrical Hall conductivity and the Wiedemann-Franz law, yielding a record Hall Lorenz number of $164.9\times10^{-8}V^2 K^{-2}$ ($\sim$67$L_0$) - the largest ever observed in a metal. The temperature dependence of the thermal Hall conductivity significantly differs from its longitudinal counterpart, ruling out a purely phononic origin of the non-electronic component. Based on the temperature dependence and the amplitudes of the Seebeck and Nernst responses, we demonstrate that ambipolar phonon drag dominates the thermal Hall response of graphite.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Comment on `High-resolution Measurements of Thermal Conductivity Matrix and Search for Thermal Hall Effect in La$_2$CuO$_4$'

Recently, Jiayi Hu and co-workers reported that they did not resolve any thermal Hall signal in La$_2$CuO$_4$ by `high resolution' measurements, setting an upper bound of $|κ_{xy}| <2\times 10^{-3}~$Wm$^{-1}$K$^{-1}$ at 20 K. Two points have apparently escaped their attention. First, thermal Hall signals with an amplitude well below this resolution bound have been detected in disordered perovskites. Second, the longitudinal thermal conductivity of their sample is significantly lower than the La$_2$CuO$_4$ sample displaying a thermal Hall signal. We find that a moderate reduction of $κ_{xx}$ in SrTiO$_3$ is concomitant with a drastic attenuation of $κ_{xy}$. A trend emerges across several families of insulators: the amplitude of $κ_{xy}$ anti-correlates with disorder.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Asymmetric stress engineering of dense dislocations in brittle superconductors for strong vortex pinning

Large lossless currents in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) critically rely on dense defects with suitable size and dimensionality to pin vortices, with dislocations being particularly effective due to their one-dimensional geometry to interact extensively with vortex lines. However, in non-metallic compounds such as HTS with rigid lattices, conventional deformation methods typically lead to catastrophic fracture rather than dislocation-mediated plasticity, making it a persistent challenge to introduce dislocations at high density. Here, we propose an asymmetric stress field strategy using extrusion to directly nucleate a high-density of dislocations in HTS by activating shear-driven lattice slip and twisting under superimposed hydrostatic compression. As demonstrated in iron-based superconductors (IBS), atomic displacements of nearly one angstrom trigger the formation of tilted dislocation lines with a density approaching that of metals. With further structural refinement, these dislocations serve as strong pinning centers that lead to a fivefold enhancement in the current-carrying capacity of IBS at 33 T, along with low anisotropy and a large irreversibility field. This work not only establishes a scalable route to engineer pinning landscapes in HTS, but also offers a generalizable framework for manipulating dislocation structures in rigid crystalline systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Exceedingly large in-plane critical field of finite-momentum pairing state in bulk superlattices

Magnetic flux profoundly influences the phase factor of charge particles, leading to exotic quantum phenomena. A recent example is that the orbital effect of magnetic field could induce finite-momentum pairing state in nanoflakes, which offers a new pathway to realize the spatially modulated superconductivity distinct from the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state induced by Zeeman effect. However, whether such intriguing state can exist in the bulk materials under extremely large magnetic field remains elusive. Here we report the orbital effect induced finite-momentum pairing state with exceedingly large in-plane critical field in a bulk superconducting superlattice. Remarkably, the in-plane critical field shows a pronounced upturn behavior, exceeding eight times the Pauli limit which is comparable to monolayer Ising superconductor. Under high in-plane magnetic fields, significant anisotropic transport behavior between the interlayer and intralayer directions is detected, highlighting the critical role of suppressed interlayer coherence in the orbital effect induced finite-momentum pairing state. Crucially, this finite-momentum pairing state remains robust against moderate disorder. Our findings suggest that van der Waals superlattices, with strong Ising spin-orbit coupling and tunable interlayer coherence, offer new avenues for constructing and modulating unconventional superconducting states.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2025

Abnormal planar Hall effect and disentanglement of incoherent and coherent transport in a Kondo lattice

The nature of localized-itinerant transition in Kondo lattice systems remains a mystery despite intensive investigations in past decades. While it is often identified from the coherent peak in magnetic resistivity, recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and ultrafast optical spectroscopy revealed a precursor incoherent region with band bending and hybridization fluctuations. This raises the question of how the coherent heavy-electron state is developed from an incoherent background of fluctuating localized moments and then established at sufficiently low temperatures. Here, on the example of the quasi-one-dimensional Kondo lattice compound CeCo$_2$Ga$_8$, we show that planar Hall effect and planar anisotropic magnetoresistance measurements provide an effective way to disentangle the incoherent Kondo scattering contribution and the coherent heavy-electron contribution, and a multi-stage process is directly visualized with lowering temperature by their distinct angle-dependent patterns in magneto-transport. Our idea may be extended to other measurements and thereby opens up a pathway for systematically investigating the fundamental physics of Kondo lattice coherence.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

The Fermi surface of RuO2 measured by quantum oscillations

The metallic oxide RuO$_2$ has emerged as a promising altermagnet candidate, owing to reports of this material hosting antiferromagnetic ordering accompanied by a spin-split electronic band structure characteristic of time-reversal symmetry-breaking. However, recent studies have robustly questioned this scenario. Here we map the Fermi surface of pristine single-crystalline RuO$_2$. By measuring magnetic quantum oscillations of a bulk thermodynamic property, our study resolves the electronic structure present in the bulk of RuO$_2$. Several Fermi sheets are discerned, with a range of effective quasiparticle masses up to five times that of the bare electron mass. We compare our measurements with the predictions for altermagnetic and nonmagnetic Fermi surfaces deduced from density functional theory calculations. The quantum oscillatory frequency spectra correspond very poorly to the profile expected for the case of altermagnetism; by contrast, they correspond well to the nonmagnetic scenario. Our findings place significant constraints on the bulk magnetic properties of RuO$_2$, and strongly suggest that this material is a paramagnet.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

Angle-dependent planar thermal Hall effect by quasi-ballistic phonons in black phosphorus

The origin of the phonon thermal Hall effect in insulators is a matter of ongoing debate. The large amplitude of the signal in an elemental non-magnetic solid, such as black phosphorus (BP), calls for a minimal mechanism not invoking the spin degree of freedom. Here, we show that a longitudinal heat flow generates a transverse temperature gradient in BP even when the magnetic field, the heat current and the thermal gradient lie in the same plane. The phonon mean-free-path is close to the sample thickness. Therefore, it is unlikely that scattering by point-like symmetry-breaking defects play a major role. We show that the angular dependence of the signal can be mapped to the sum of two sinusoidal components each peaking when the magnetic field is parallel to a high symmetry. We propose that anharmonicity may play a major role and argue that the magnetic field can exert a torque on electric dipolar waves traveling with phonons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Discovery of a large magnetic nonlinear Hall effect in an altermagnet

Since Edwin Halls groundbreaking discovery of the Hall effect in 1879, magnetism, spin, and quantization have been expanding the scope of Hall effects, continuously driving transformative progress in science and technology. Among them, the latest nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE), where longitudinal electric field tunes quantum geometry to generate nonlinear Hall voltage, attracts wide attention as a sensitive probe of topological phases across a wide range of materials. Here, we report a new Hall effect member: the magnetic nonlinear Hall effect (MNLHE), characterized by a quadratic Hall conductivity dependence on magnetic field, rather than electric field as in NLHE. This finding relies on an altermagnet, Mn5Si3 thin film, whose alternating-sign Berry curvatures ensure higher-order MNLHE clearly distinguishable from the first-order anomalous Hall effect. The observed quadratic dependence originates from chiral next-nearest-neighbor hopping processes that acquire magnetic-exchange-driven Zeeman energies and Haldane-like chiral flux phases. Remarkably, this MNLHE is non-analytic, as reversing the magnetic field flips the alternating spin-splitting bands and reverses the hopping chirality, which is absent in traditional NLHE. Beyond offering a distinctive transport fingerprint for altermagnet Mn5Si3 thin film, this MNLHE is large and unsaturated up to 60 T, providing opportunities for pulsed high-field sensing technologies in both fundamental researches and engineering applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗