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Experimental signatures of the chiral anomaly in Dirac–Weyl semimetals

Nature Reviews Physics volume 3, pages 394–404 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

In condensed matter, the chiral anomaly describes the conversion of left-moving Dirac–Weyl fermions to right-moving ones in parallel electric and magnetic fields. The resulting axial current leads to an unusual negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR). Five years ago, the discovery of Dirac and Weyl semimetals led to many experiments investigating this phenomenon. In this Review, we critically assess LMR experiments in the Dirac–Weyl semimetals Na3Bi, GdPtBi, ZrTe5, Cd3As2 and TaAs, which have shown signatures of the chiral anomaly, and discuss possible current-jetting artefacts. The focus is on Dirac and Weyl nodes that are rigorously symmetry protected. Other experiments, such as non-local transport, thermopower, thermal conductivity and optical pump–probe response, are also reviewed. Looking ahead, we anticipate what can be gleaned from improved LMR experiments and new experiments on the thermal conductivity and optical response. An expanded purview of the chiral anomaly is provided in the Supplementary Information.

Key points

  • The chiral anomaly describes the conversion of left-moving massless fermions to right-moving ones in the presence of electromagnetic fields and has long been predicted to be observable in crystals.

  • The chiral anomaly was predicted in 1983 to be observable in crystals and the discovery of Dirac and Weyl semimetals with symmetry-protected nodes now enables tests of the prediction.

  • Longitudinal magnetoresistance measurements can provide evidence of the chiral anomaly but can also contain artefacts caused by current jetting.

  • Other experimental measurements of the chiral anomaly include thermal conductivity and optical response.

  • These experiments join a long line of anomaly experiments that extend over a vast range of energy scales in many subfields of physics.

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Fig. 1: Landau quantization.
Fig. 2: Magnetoresistance of Na3Bi and GdPtBi.
Fig. 3: Unusual electronic properties of ZrTe5.
Fig. 4: Experiments on TaAs and GdPtBi.
Fig. 5: Optical detection of the chiral anomaly in TaAs.

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Acknowledgements

We are indebted to Stephen Adler for careful reading of the draft and providing valuable comments. N.P.O. acknowledges the support of the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO contract W911NF-16-1-0116), the U.S. National Science Foundation (grant DMR 1420541) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s EPiQS Initiative through grant GBMF4539.

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  1. Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA

    N. P. Ong & Sihang Liang

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Nature Reviews Physics thanks Chandra Shekhar, Qiang Li and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ong, N.P., Liang, S. Experimental signatures of the chiral anomaly in Dirac–Weyl semimetals. Nat Rev Phys 3, 394–404 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00310-9

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