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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.

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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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