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Room-temperature nonlinear Hall effect and wireless radiofrequency rectification in Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 421–425 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE), the phenomenon in which a transverse voltage can be produced without a magnetic field, provides a potential alternative for rectification or frequency doubling1,2. However, the low-temperature detection of the NLHE limits its applications3,4. Here, we report the room-temperature NLHE in a type-II Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4, which hosts a robust NLHE due to broken inversion symmetry and large band overlapping at the Fermi level. We also observe a temperature-induced sign inversion of the NLHE in TaIrTe4. Our theoretical calculations suggest that the observed sign inversion is a result of a temperature-induced shift in the chemical potential, indicating a direct correlation of the NLHE with the electronic structure at the Fermi surface. Finally, on the basis of the observed room-temperature NLHE in TaIrTe4 we demonstrate the wireless radiofrequency (RF) rectification with zero external bias and magnetic field. This work opens a door to realizing room-temperature applications based on the NLHE in Weyl semimetals.

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Fig. 1: Nonlinear Hall effect in a 20-nm-thick Hall bar device of TaIrTe4.
Fig. 2: Sign change of nonlinear Hall voltage due to the shift of chemical potential.
Fig. 3: Thickness-dependent nonlinear Hall signal.
Fig. 4: Rectification demonstration based on the nonlinear Hall effect in TaIrTe4.

Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper.

Code availability

The codes that support this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the SpOT-LITE programme (A*STAR grant no. 18A6b0057) through RIE2020 funds from Singapore and Singapore Ministry of Education AcRF Tier 1 (R-263-000-D61-114). P.Y. was supported by the ‘100 Top Talents Program’ of Sun Yat-sen University (no. 29000-18841216) and the ‘Young-teacher Training Program’ of Sun Yat-sen University (no. 29000-31610036). C.-H.H. and G.L. were supported by MOE-AcRF Tier-II: MOE2017-T2-1-114. G.E. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore, under AcRF Tier 2 (MOE2017-T2-1-134). T.-R.C. was supported by MOST109-2636-M-006-002 and MOST107-2627-E-006-001, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, and the National Center for Theoretical Sciences, Taiwan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Dushyant Kumar, Chuang-Han Hsu, Raghav Sharma, Gengchiau Liang & Hyunsoo Yang

  2. Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Tay-Rong Chang

  3. Center for Quantum Frontiers of Research & Technology (QFort), National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

    Tay-Rong Chang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Peng Yu

  5. Centre for Advanced 2D Materials, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Junyong Wang & Goki Eda

  6. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Junyong Wang & Goki Eda

  7. Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Goki Eda

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  1. Dushyant Kumar
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  8. Gengchiau Liang
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  9. Hyunsoo Yang
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Contributions

D.K. designed the experimental study, fabricated devices and performed electrical measurements. C.-H.H. and G.L. did simulations and theoretical analyses. R.S. helped in energy-harvesting experiments. T.-R.C. provided the tight-binding models. P.Y. provided single crystals of TaIrTe4. J.W. and G.E. conducted Raman measurements. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. D.K., C.-H.H. and H.Y. wrote the manuscript. H.Y. initiated the idea and led the project.

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Correspondence to Hyunsoo Yang.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks Hai-Zhou Lu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–13, Figs. 1–10, Table 1 and refs. 1–21.

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Kumar, D., Hsu, CH., Sharma, R. et al. Room-temperature nonlinear Hall effect and wireless radiofrequency rectification in Weyl semimetal TaIrTe4. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 421–425 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-00839-3

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