The nonlinear transport regime is manifested in the nonlinear current-voltage characteristic of the system. An example of such a nonlinear regime is a setup in which current is injected into the sample and the measured voltage drop is quadratic in the injected current. Such a quadratic nonlinear regime requires inversion symmetry to be broken. This is the same symmetry condition as one needs to observe weak antilocalization, which can be prominent in two-dimensional systems. Here, we study the effects of weak (anti)localization on second-order nonlinear transport in two-dimensional systems using the semiclassical Boltzmann approach. We solve for quasiparticle distribution function up to the second order in the applied external electric field and calculate linear and nonlinear conductivity tensors for a toy model. We find that localization effects could lead to a sign change of the nonlinear conductivity tensor—a phenomenon observed in transition metal dichalcogenide and single-layer graphene devices.

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• Electrical conductivity
• Impurities
• Mesoscopics
• Quantum interference effects
• Two-dimensional electron system
• Boltzmann theory