arXiv subjects

Zhi-Fan Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Zhi-Fan Zhang.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Anomalous Thomson Effect

We formulate an effect called the anomalous Thomson effect (ATE), which constitutes the Thom?son counterpart to the anomalous Hall effect and anomalous Nernst effect (ANE). The anomalous Thomson coefficient (ATC) is determined by the anomalous Nernst coefficient (ANC) together with the temperature dependence of both the ANC and the longitudinal electrical conductivity; This relation is model independent within local linear response and holds for the total anomalous Nernst coefficient, irrespective of whether its microscopic origin is intrinsic or extrinsic. Specifically, we study a massive Dirac model for Fe3Sn2 to capture intrinsic Berry-curvature-driven transport, where the Berry curvature near the gapped Dirac cones enhances the ANC-related contributions to the ATC, and we also deduce the ATC from measured experimental data reported for CoS2,Co3Sn2S2, and CeCrGe3. In the low-temperature limit, the ratio ATC/ANC approaches three, and we find that the ATC for CeCrGe3 can be as large as ten times the ANC in the liquid-nitrogen temperature regime, making this effect highly attractive for solid-state thermoelectric refrigeration in this temperature range. It is important to emphasize that the formulated ATE can be directly verified using existing ANE and longitudinal conductivity data, without the need for additional equipment or measurements.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Electron Dynamics Reconstruction and Nontrivial Transport by Acoustic Waves

Surface acoustic waves (SAWs) become a popular driving source in modern condensed matter physics, but most existing theories simplify them as electric fields and ignore the non-uniform Brillouin zone folding effect. We develop a semiclassical framework and reconstruct the electron dynamics by treating SAW as a quasi-periodic potential modulating electronic momentum distribution. This framework naturally explains the experimentally observed DC drag current and predicts acousto-electric Hall effect. The theory further reveals various SAW-driven transport phenomena, emerging anomalous Hall, thermal Hall, and Nernst effects within time-reversal symmetric systems. Illustrated in bilayer graphene and $\mathrm{MX_2}$ (M = Mo, W; X = S, Se, Te), the angular-dependent acousto-electric Hall effect provides an experimental probe for Berry curvature distribution.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2026

Fundamental Relations as the Leading Order in Nonlinear Thermoelectric Responses with Time-Reversal Symmetry

In recent years, nonlinear transport phenomena have garnered significant interest in both theoretical explorations and experiments. In this work, we utilize the semi-classical wave packet theory to calculate disorder-induced second-order transport coefficients: second-order electrical ($\sigma$), thermoelectric ($\alpha$), and thermal ($\kappa$) coefficients, capturing the interplay between side-jump and skew-scattering contributions in systems with time-reversal symmetry. Using a topological insulator model, we quantitatively characterize the Fermi-level dependence of these second-order transport coefficients by explicitly including Coulomb impurity potentials. Furthermore, we elucidate the relationships between these coefficients, establishing the second-order Mott relation and the Wiedemann-Franz law induced by disorder. This study develops a comprehensive theoretical framework elucidating the nonlinear thermoelectric transport mechanisms in quantum material systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

TensorSymmetry: a package to get symmetry-adapted tensors disentangling spin-orbit coupling effect and establishing analytical relationship with magnetic order

The symmetry-constrained response tensors on transport, optical, and electromagnetic effects are of central importance in condensed matter physics because they can guide experimental detections and verify theoretical calculations. These tensors encompass various forms, including polar, axial, i-type (time-reversal even), and c-type (time-reversal odd) matrixes. The commonly used magnetic groups, however, fail to describe the phenomena without the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) effect and cannot build the analytical relationship between magnetic orders with response tensors in magnetic materials. Developing approaches on these two aspects is quite demanding for theory and experiment. In this paper, we use the magnetic group, spin group, and extrinsic parameter method comprehensively to investigate the symmetry-constrained response tensors, then implement the above method in a platform called "TensorSymmetry". With the package, we can get the response tensors disentangling the effect free of SOC and establish the analytical relationship with magnetic order, which provides useful guidance for theoretical and experimental investigation for magnetic materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2025

The second-order intrinsic Wiedemann-Franz law

In recent years, the nonlinear anomalous thermal Hall effect has attracted substantial attention. In this paper, we carry out a theoretical exploration of the intrinsic anomalous thermal Hall and Nernst effect that is induced by the thermal Berry connection polarizability. This effect is independent of the relaxation time and can be present in antiferromagnets possessing PT symmetry. Additionally, we put forward a second-order intrinsic Wiedemann-Franz law, which represents the ratio of the second-order intrinsic thermal conductivity coefficient to the second-order intrinsic electrical conductivity coefficient . When analyzed within a four-band PT symmetric Dirac model, we observe that the second-order intrinsic thermal conductivity coefficient is linearly proportional to the second-order intrinsic electrical conductivity coefficient , and the second-order intrinsic Wiedemann-Franz law is characterized by the chemical potential $\mu$ in the low-temperature regime. These findings provide significant implications for experimental verification.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Quantum kinetic theory of the semiclassical side jump, skew scattering and longitudinal velocity

The semiclassical Boltzmann equation is widely used to study transport effects. However, being semiclassical and borrowing heavily from classical mechanics, the formalism calls for verification from the perspective of quantum mechanics. Although previous works discussed the relation between the quantum density matrix and the semiclassical formalism, direct comparison, especially of disorder effects, including side jumps and skew scattering in the two approaches, has not been fully conducted. In this work, we systematically and directly compare the semiclassical Boltzmann equation and its counterpart arising from the density matrix. We find that there is an additional correction to the side-jump velocity, the longitudinal velocity, which is longitudinal in the leading order, and its resultant current does not require time-reversal symmetry breaking. Moreover, we find the semiclassical side-jump collision integral is an approximation of the quantum result at moderate temperatures, and it also contains a correction induced by the longitudinal velocity. We also show that the scattering rate obtained from the density matrix agrees with the semiclassical results. Our work illuminates the quantum roots of the semiclassical Boltzmann equation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Intrinsic Dynamic Generation of Spin Polarization by Time-Varying Electric Field

Electric control of spin in insulators is desired for low-consumption and ultrafast spintronics, but the underlying mechanism remains largely unexplored. Here, we propose an intrinsic effect of dynamic spin generation driven by time-varying electric field. In the intraband response regime, it can be nicely formulated as a Berry curvature effect and leads to two phenomena that are forbidden in the $dc$ limit: linear spin generation in nonmagnetic insulators and intrinsic N{\'e}el spin-orbit torque in $\mathcal{PT}$-symmetric antiferromagnetic insulators. These phenomena are driven by the time derivative of field rather than the field itself, and have a quantum origin in the first-order dynamic anomalous spin polarizability. Combined with first-principles calculations, we predict sizable effects driven by terahertz field in nonmagnetic monolayer Bi and in antiferromagnetic even-layer MnBi$_2$Te$_4$, which can be detected in experiment.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Intrinsic Second Order Spin Current

In recent years, nonlinear Hall effect has attracted great attention with three different terms contributed by Drude effect, Berry curvature dipole and Berry connection polarizability. In this work, we theoretically predict an intrinsic second order spin current induced by spin-dependent Berry curvature polarizability based on time-independent perturbation theory. We show other two second order spin conductivities contributed by the group velocity and spin-dependent Berry curvature dipole.A two-dimensional Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupled system is studied as an example, and it is found that the intrinsic second order contribution plays a major role in the region of $\mu>0$, while current mainly comes from the extrinsic terms when $\mu<0$. Thus, the dependence of spin conductivity on chemical potential is expected to distinguish the extrinsic and intrinsic contributions experimentally.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2024

Effect of disorder on Berry curvature and quantum metric in two-band gapped graphene

The geometric properties of parameter space are mostly described by Berry curvature and quantum metric, which are the imaginary and real part of quantum geometric tensor, respectively. In this work, we calculate the dressed Berry curvature and quantum metric containing eight Feynman diagrams, which are proportional to the leading-order of the concentration of impurities. For a two-band gapped graphene model, we find the disorder does not break the original symmetry but decrease (increase) the absolute value of Berry curvature and quantum metric in conduction (valence) band. We show how impurities affect the Berry curvature and quantum metric, deepening our understanding of the impurity effect on the electron transport properties in two-band gapped graphene.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Theory of Nonlinear Response for Charge and Spin Currents

The nonlinear Hall effect, which is the second-order harmonic charge Hall effect from the Berry curvature dipole in momentum space, has received much attention recently. As the responses to higher harmonics of the driving ac electric field are prominent and measurable, we develop a general nonlinear theory by taking the charge and spin currents as well as the longitudinal and transverse effects into account. We introduce the expansion order of the electric field and Berry curvature multipole moment, where the Berry curvature dipole is a particular one manifesting itself at the second harmonic order and the second expansion order of the electric field. There are four cases with conserving or breaking the time-reversal symmetry (TRS) and inversion symmetry (IS). We find a specific ``selection rule" that only longitudinal odd harmonic order charge currents exist for conserving both the TRS and IS, and with breaking both symmetries, all harmonic order charge and spin currents are nonzero. With conserving TRS and breaking IS, the charge Hall current exists at even harmonic order, and the longitudinal charge current occurs at odd harmonic order. Only the longitudinal spin current survives at even harmonic order. With breaking TRS and conserving IS, only odd harmonic order charge and spin currents can appear. Moreover, we observe that every harmonic order current contains a series of infinite-order expansion of the electric field. We further show that the Berry curvature dipole and quadrupole can be determined by measuring the second and fourth harmonic order currents in experiments. This may open a way to explore the higher responses of an ac driving system.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Fundamental Distinction between Intrinsic and Extrinsic Nonlinear Thermal Hall Effects

We theoretically investigated the fundamental distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic nonlinear thermal Hall effect in the presence of disorder at the second-order response to the temperature gradient in terms of the semi-classical Boltzmann equation. We found that, at low temperatures, the intrinsic contribution of the nonlinear thermal Hall conductivity is proportional to the square of temperature, whereas the extrinsic contributions (side-jump and skew-scattering) are independent of temperature. This distinct dependency on temperature provide a new approach to readily distinguish the intrinsic and extrinsic contributions. Specifically, we analysed the nonlinear thermal Hall effect for a tilted two-dimensional massive Dirac material. In particular, we showed that when the Fermi energy is located at the Dirac point, the signal is solely from the intrinsic mechanism; when the Fermi energy is higher, the extrinsic contributions are dominant, which are uncovered to be two to three orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic contribution.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗