Nature Communications (Apr 2024)

Current-sensitive Hall effect in a chiral-orbital-current state

  • Yu Zhang,
  • Yifei Ni,
  • Pedro Schlottmann,
  • Rahul Nandkishore,
  • Lance E. DeLong,
  • Gang Cao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47823-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 7

Abstract

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Abstract Chiral orbital currents (COC) underpin a novel colossal magnetoresistance in ferrimagnetic Mn3Si2Te6. Here we report the Hall effect in the COC state which exhibits the following unprecedented features: (1) A sharp, current-sensitive peak in the magnetic field dependence of the Hall resistivity, and (2) A current-sensitive scaling relation between the Hall conductivity σ xy and the longitudinal conductivity σ xx , namely, σ xy ∝ σ xx α with α reaching up to 5, which is exceptionally large compared to α ≤ 2 typical of all solids. The novel Hall responses along with a current-sensitive carrier density and a large Hall angle of 15% point to a giant, current-sensitive Hall effect that is unique to the COC state. Here, we show that a magnetic field induced by the fully developed COC combines with the applied magnetic field to exert the greatly enhanced transverse force on charge carriers, which dictates the COC Hall responses.