No Arabic abstract
We present a theory of magnetotransport phenomena related to the chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals. We show that conductivity, thermal conductivity, thermoelectric and the sound absorption coefficients exhibit strong and anisotropic magnetic field dependences. We also discuss properties of magneto-plasmons and magneto-polaritons, whose existence is entirely determined by the chiral anomaly. Finally, we discuss the conditions of applicability of the quasi-classical description of electron transport phenomena related to the chiral anomaly.
Weyl semimetals are well-known for hosting topologically protected linear band crossings, serving as the analog of the relativistic Weyl Fermions in the condensed matter context. Such analogy persists deeply, allowing the existence of the chiral anomaly under parallel electric and magnetic field in Weyl semimetals. Different from such picture, here we show that, a unique mechanism of the chiral anomaly exists in Weyl semimetals by injecting a spin current with parallel spin polarization and flow direction. The existence of such a chiral anomaly is protected by the topological feature that each Weyl cone can also be a source or drain of the spin field in the momentum space. It leads to measurable experimental signals, such as an electric charge current parallel with an applied magnetic field in the absence of the electric field, and a sharp peak at certain resonant frequency in the injection current in achiral Weyl semimetals through the circular photogalvanic effect. Our work shows that the topological implication of Weyl semimetals goes beyond the link with relativistic Weyl Fermions, and offers a promising scenario to examine the interplay between topology and spin.
After the experimental realization, the Berry curvature dipole (BCD) induced nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) has attracted tremendous interest to the condensed matter community. Here, we investigate another family of Hall effect, namely, chiral anomaly induced nonlinear Hall effect (CNHE) in multi-Weyl semimetal (mWSM). In contrast to the BCD induced NLHE, CNHE appears because of the combination of both chiral anomaly and anomalous velocity due to non-trivial Berry curvature. Using the semiclassical Boltzmann theory within the relaxation time approximation, we show that, in contrast to the chiral anomaly induced linear Hall effect, the magnitude of CNHE decreases with the topological charge n. Interestingly, we find that unlike the case of n=1, the CNHE has different behaviors in different planes. Our prediction on the behavior of CNHE in mWSM can directly be checked in experiments.
It is commonly believed that a non-interacting disordered electronic system can undergo only the Anderson metal-insulator transition. It has been suggested, however, that a broad class of systems can display disorder-driven transitions distinct from Anderson localisation that have manifestations in the disorder-averaged density of states, conductivity and other observables. Such transitions have received particular attention in the context of recently discovered 3D Weyl and Dirac materials but have also been predicted in cold-atom systems with long-range interactions, quantum kicked rotors and all sufficiently high-dimensional systems. Moreover, such systems exhibit unconventional behaviour of Lifshitz tails, energy-level statistics and ballistic-transport properties. Here we review recent progress and the status of results on non-Anderson disorder-driven transitions and related phenomena.
Chiral anomaly or Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly in Weyl semimetals (WSMs) has a significant impact on the electron transport behaviors, leading to remarkable longitudinal or planar electrical and thermoelectric transport phenomena in the presence of electromagnetic gauge fields. These phenomena are consequences of the imbalanced chiral charge and energy induced by chiral anomaly in the presence of parallel electric ($mathbf{E}$) and magnetic ($mathbf{B}$) fields ($mathbf{E cdot B } eq 0$) or $(mathbf{B cdot abla }T eq 0)$ ($mathbf{ abla}T$ is the thermal gradient). We here propose another two fascinating transport properties, namely, the nonlinear planar Nernst effect and nonlinear planar thermal Hall effect induced by chiral anomaly in the presence of $mathbf{B cdot abla}T eq 0$ in WSMs. Using the semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, we derive the analytical expressions for the chiral anomaly induced nonlinear Nernst and thermal Hall transport coefficients and also evaluate the fundamental mathematical relations among them in the nonlinear regime. The formulas we find in this current work are consistent with that predicted for the nonlinear anomalous electrical and thermoelectric effects induced by Berry curvature dipole recently. Additionally, in contrast to the recent work, by utilizing the lattice Weyl Hamiltonian with intrinsic chiral chemical potential, we find that the chiral anomaly induced nonlinear planar effects can exist even for a pair of oppositely tilted or non-tilted Weyl cones in both time reversal and inversion broken WSMs. The chiral anomaly induced nonlinear planar effects predicted here along with the related parameter dependencies are hence possible to be realized in realistic WSMs in experiment.
We show that Weyl semimetals exhibit a mixed axial-torsional anomaly in the presence of axial torsion, a concept exclusive of these materials with no known natural fundamental interpretation in terms of the geometry of spacetime. This anomaly implies a nonconservation of the axial current---the difference in current of left- and right-handed chiral fermions---when the torsion of the spacetime in which the Weyl fermions move couples with opposite sign to different chiralities. The anomaly is activated by driving transverse sound waves through a Weyl semimetal with a spatially varying tilted dispersion, which can be engineered by applying strain. This leads to sizable alternating current in presence of a magnetic field that provides a clear-cut experimental signature of our predictions.