Origin of the anomalous Hall effect in a disordered ferromagnetic single crystal
Phys. Rev. B 114, 065109 – Published 7 July, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vxhm-jv21
Abstract
The anomalous Hall effect (AHE) serves as a pivotal transport phenomenon for deciphering the interplay between magnetic spin textures and topological bands in magnetic materials, with its origin attributed to intrinsic (momentum-space Berry curvature linked to Weyl or Dirac point) and extrinsic (spin-dependent scattering, i.e., skew scattering and side-jump) mechanisms. The complex magnetic structure and strong spin-orbit coupling effect of rare-earth magnetic materials make them an important platform for studying AHE. Here, we report a disordered single crystal and investigate its magnetic and transport properties. In this single crystal, Ho-Au mixed occupancy on the site and vacancies on the Si sublattice give rise to pronounced chemical disorder. belongs to the rare-earth ferromagnetic material with a magnetic ordering temperature of 8 K ( ) and easy magnetization along the axis. The magnetoresistance (MR) of exhibits different behaviors at high and low temperatures in the and configurations. At 3 K (), the MR is initially positive and becomes negative with the magnetic field further increasing. This is due to the gradual disappearance of magnetic domain-wall scattering as the magnetization process approaches saturation. At 100 K (), the MR remains negative as a result of the suppression of the scattering from spin fluctuations. With regard to the AHE, considering the scaling behavior between the anomalous Hall resistivity and the longitudinal resistivity , the origin of the AHE in can be described by the skew scattering mechanism. The dominance of skew scattering is likely driven by the structural disorder present in : the Ho-Au mixed occupancy and Si vacancies create a random potential landscape and break local chemical periodicity, which are expected to enhance asymmetric carrier scattering. The anomalous Hall angle Θ and anomalous Hall factor of are 0.49% and 0.03 , respectively, at 3 K, and both decrease as the temperature rises. The small Θ and are attributed to the finite exchange coupling in this localized-moment ferromagnet and to the enhanced scattering environment associated with Ho-Au mixed occupancy and Si vacancies. This work establishes disordered as a platform for studying the role of structural disorder in skew-scatter-dominated AHE in rare-earth localized-moment ferromagnets.