Giant nonlinear anomalous Hall effect induced by spin-dependent band structure evolution

Anomalous Hall effect (AHE) is the key transport signature unlocking topological properties of magnetic materials. While AHE is usually proportional to the magnetization, the nonlinearity suggests the existence of complex magnetic and electron orders. Nonlinear AHE includes the topological Hall effect (THE) that has been widely used to identify the presence of spin chirality in real space. But it can in principle be induced by band structure evolution via Berry curvatures in the reciprocal space. This effect has been largely overlooked due to the intertwined mechanisms in both real and reciprocal spaces. Here, we observed a giant nonlinear AHE with the resistivity up to 383.5 uohm cm, contributing unprecedentedly 97% of the total Hall response in EuCd2As2. Moreover, it can be further enhanced by tilting the magnetic field 30{deg} away from [001] direction, reaching a large anomalous Hall angle up to 21%. Although it shows exactly the same double-peak feature as THE, our scaling analysis and first-principles calculations reveal that the Berry phase is extremely sensitive to the spin canting, and nonlinear AHE is a consequence of band structure evolution under the external magnetic fields. When the spins gradually tilt from the in-plane antiferromagnetic ground state to out-of-plane direction, band crossing and band inversion occur, introducing a bandgap at {Gamma} point at a canting angle of 45{deg}. That contributes to the enhancement of Berry curvature and consequently a large intrinsic Hall conductivity. Our results unequivocally reveal the sensitive dependence of band structures on spin tilting process under external magnetic fields and its pronounced influence on the transport properties, which also need to be taken into consideration in other magnetic materials.