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  • Open Access

Magnetotransport across Weyl semimetal grain boundaries

Haoyang Tian*, Vatsal Dwivedi, Adam Yanis Chaou, and Maxim Breitkreiz†

  • Freie Universität Berlin, Dahlem Center for Complex Quantum Systems and Fachbereich Physik, Arnimallee 14, 14195 Berlin, Germany

  • *Contact author: haoyang.tian@uni-koeln.de
  • †Contact author: breitkr@physik.fu-berlin.de
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Phys. Rev. B 113, 075152 – Published 24 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/99q1-37q7

Abstract

A clean interface between two Weyl semimetals features a universal, field-linear tunnel magnetoconductance of (e2/h)Nho per magnetic flux quantum, where Nho is the number of chirality-preserving topological interface Fermi arcs. In this work we show that the linearity of the magnetoconductance is robust with respect to interface disorder. The slope of the magnetoconductance changes at a characteristic field strength Barc—the field strength for which the time taken to traverse the Fermi arc due to the Lorentz force is equal to the mean inter-arc scattering time. For fields much larger than Barc, the magnetoconductance is unaffected by disorder. For fields much smaller than Barc, the slope is no longer determined by Nho but by the simple fraction NLNR/(NL+NR), where NL and NR are the numbers of Weyl-node pairs in the left and right Weyl semimetal, respectively. We also consider the effect of spatially correlated disorder potentials, where we find that Barc decreases exponentially with increasing correlation length. Our results provide a possible explanation for the recently observed robustness of the negative linear magnetoresistance in grained Weyl semimetals.

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Phys. Rev. B 113, 075152– Published 24 February, 2026
  • Received 26 September 2025
  • Revised 19 December 2025
  • Accepted 22 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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