Publications and Preprints

Magnetotransport measurements are crucial for understanding the Fermi surface properties, magnetism, and topology in quantum materials. Here, we report the discovery of giant room temperature odd-parity magnetoresistance (OMR) in a bilayer graphene (BLG) heterostructure interfaced with Cr2Te2Ge6(CGT). Using magnetotransport measurements, we demonstrate that the BLG/CGT heterostructure exhibits a significant antisymmetric longitudinal magnetoresistance, indicative of intrinsic time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking in the system. We show that the OMR is tunable via electrostatic gating. Additionally, the OMR is pronounced near the band edges and diminishes with increasing charge carrier density in graphene. Our theoretical analysis reveals that this phenomenon arises from the coupling of the out-of-plane components of Berry curvature and orbital magnetic moment to the applied magnetic field in a TRS-broken system. Our findings establish OMR as a significant probe for TRS breaking in quantum materials in which the crystal symmetries preclude the appearance of anomalous Hall effect. 

The planar Hall effect in 3D systems is an effective probe for their Berry curvature, topology, and electronic properties. However, the Berry curvature-induced conventional planar Hall effect is forbidden in 2D systems as the out-of-plane Berry curvature cannot couple to the band velocity of the electrons moving in the 2D plane. Here, we demonstrate a unique 2D planar Hall effect (2DPHE) originating from the hidden planar components of the Berry curvature and orbital magnetic moment in quasi-2D materials. We identify all planar band geometric contributions to 2DPHE and classify their crystalline symmetry restrictions. Using gated bilayer graphene as an example, we show that in addition to capturing the hidden band geometric effects, 2DPHE is also sensitive to the Lifshitz transitions. Our work motivates further exploration of hidden planar band geometry-induced 2DPHE and related transport phenomena for innovative applications.    

Quantum oscillations offer a powerful probe for the geometry and topology of the Fermi surface in metals. Onsager’s semiclassical quantization relation governs these periodic oscillations in 1/B, leading to a linear Landau fan diagram. However, higher-order magnetic susceptibility-induced corrections give rise to a generalized Onsager’s relation, manifesting in experiments as a nonlinear Landau fan diagram and aperiodic quantum oscillations. Here, we explore the generalized Onsager’s relation to three-dimensional (3D) systems to capture the B-induced corrections in the free energy and the Fermi surface. We unravel the manifestation of these corrections in the nonlinear Landau fan diagrams and aperiodic quantum oscillations by deriving the B-dependent oscillation frequency and the generalized Lifshitz-Kosevich equation, respectively. Our theory explains the necessary conditions to observe these fascinating effects and predicts the magnetic field dependence of the cyclotron mass. As a concrete example, we elucidate these effects in a 3D spin-orbit coupled system and extract zero-field magnetic response functions from analytically obtained Landau levels. Our comprehensive study deepens and advances our understanding of aperiodic quantum oscillations.

Abstract: The discovery of a chiral anomaly in Weyl semimetals, the non-conservation of chiral charge and energy across two opposite chirality Weyl nodes, has sparked immense interest in understanding its impact on various physical phenomena. Here, we demonstrate the existence of electrical, thermal, and gravitational quantum chiral anomalies in 3D spin-orbit coupled systems. Notably, these anomalies involve chiral charge transfer across two Fermi surfaces linked to a single Weyl-like point, rather than across opposite chirality Weyl nodes as in Weyl semimetals. Our findings reveal that the Berry curvature flux piercing the Fermi surface plays a critical role in distinguishing the `chirality' of the carriers and the corresponding chiral charge and energy transfer. Importantly, we demonstrate that these quantum chiral anomalies lead to interesting thermal spin transport such as the spin Nernst effect. Our results suggest that 3D spin-orbit coupled metals offer a promising platform for investigating the interplay between quantum chiral anomalies and charge and spin transport in non-relativistic systems. 

Abstract: Magnetotransport and magneto-optics experiments offer a very powerful probe for studying the physical properties of materials. Here, we investigate the second-order nonlinear magnetoconductivity of the tilted type-I Weyl and multi-Weyl semimetals. In contrast to the existence of chiral charge pumping in the linear response regime, we reproduce the absence of chiral charge pumping in the nonlinear transport regime, using the Boltzmann transport framework with the Landau levels. We predict that an inversion symmetry broken and tilted Weyl semimetal can support finite longitudinal nonlinear magnetoconductivity, which is otherwise absent in untilted Weyl semimetals. The nonlinear magnetoconductivity vanishes in the ultraquantum limit, oscillates in the intermediate magnetic field regime, and saturates in the semiclassical limit. The nonlinear magnetoconductivity depends intricately on the tilt orientation, and it can be used to determine the tilt orientation in Weyl and multi-Weyl semimetals, via nonlinear magnetoresistivity or second harmonic generation experiments.