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Nonlinear and Nonreciprocal Transport Effects in Untwinned Thin Films of Ferromagnetic Weyl Metal SrRuO3

Uddipta Kar1,6,*, Elisha Cho-Hao Lu1,*, Akhilesh Kr. Singh1,*, P. V. Sreenivasa Reddy2,*, Youngjoon Han4, Xinwei Li4, Cheng-Tung Cheng1, Song Yang5, Chun-Yen Lin5 et al.

I-Chun Cheng8, Chia-Hung Hsu5, David Hsieh4, Wei-Cheng Lee3, Guang-Yu Guo2,7,†, and Wei-Li Lee1,‡

  • 1Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
  • 2Department of Physics, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
  • 3Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York 13902, USA
  • 4Department of Physics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125, USA
  • 5Scientific Research Division, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu 30076, Taiwan
  • 6Nano Science and Technology, Taiwan International Graduate Program, Academia Sinica and National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 7Physics Division, National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
  • 8Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

  • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
  • †gyguo@phys.ntu.edu.tw
  • ‡wlee@phys.sinica.edu.tw
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Phys. Rev. X 14, 011022 – Published 20 February, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.14.011022

Abstract

The identification of distinct charge transport features, deriving from nontrivial bulk band and surface states, has been a challenging subject in the field of topological systems. In topological Dirac and Weyl semimetals, nontrivial conical bands with Fermi-arc surface states give rise to negative longitudinal magnetoresistance due to chiral anomaly effect and unusual thickness dependent quantum oscillation from Weyl-orbit effect, which were demonstrated recently in experiments. In this work, we report the experimental observations of large nonlinear and nonreciprocal transport effects for both longitudinal and transverse channels in an untwinned Weyl metal of SrRuO3 thin film grown on a SrTiO3 substrate. From rigorous measurements with bias current applied along various directions with respect to the crystalline principal axes, the magnitude of nonlinear Hall signals from the transverse channel exhibits a simple sinα dependence at low temperatures, where α is the angle between bias current direction and orthorhombic [001]o, reaching a maximum when current is along orthorhombic [11¯0]o. On the contrary, the magnitude of nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in the longitudinal channel attains a maximum for bias current along [001]o, and it vanishes for bias current along [11¯0]o. The observed α-dependent nonlinear and nonreciprocal signals in longitudinal and transverse channels reveal a magnetic Weyl phase with an effective Berry curvature dipole along [11¯0]o from surface states, accompanied by 1D chiral edge modes along [001]o.

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Popular Summary

Topological materials—ones with certain properties that are robust to perturbations—exhibit unusual electronic states on their surfaces. One challenge in the study of such materials is uncovering the charge transport signatures associated with these states. Here, we report on experimental observations of some surprising charge transport signatures in one such material—thin films of SrRuO3—and how similar signatures might be used to probe for topological surface and edge states more broadly.

SrRuO3 belongs to a class of topological materials known as a Weyl semimetal, a solid-state crystal whose conduction and valence bands cross in single points known as Weyl nodes. When grown in thin films just 10 nm thick, SrRuO3 exhibits surface-dominant charge transport at very low temperatures.

In our experiments, we pattern a thin film of SrRuO3 into a sunbeam-shaped device for measuring charge transport anisotropy. Surprisingly, we observe both longitudinal and transverse Hall current rectification at temperatures below 10 K. The amplitude of the Hall rectification follows a simple sinusoidal dependence on the orientation of an applied bias current relative to one of the crystal axes. This dependence is orthogonal to that of the longitudinal current rectification. Using electronic band structure calculations, we show that these behaviors can be attributed to topological surface states and edge states with broken inversion symmetry.

Our observed current rectification effects in an approximately 10-nm SrRuO3 thin film appear to stem from the inversion-asymmetric surface and edge states in a topological Weyl system. These results not only highlight the significance of current rectification effects as a charge transport probe for topological surface and edge states but also feature potential applications in nonreciprocal electronics and nonlinear optics using topological materials.

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Phys. Rev. X 14, 011022– Published 20 February, 2024
  • Received 11 July 2023
  • Revised 30 November 2023
  • Accepted 2 January 2024
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