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Title: Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3648· OSTI ID:1303010
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  4. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Advanced Light Source (ALS)

The chiral magnetic effect is the generation of an electric current induced by chirality imbalance in the presence of a magnetic field. It is a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum anomaly in relativistic field theory of chiral fermions (massless spin 1/2 particles with a definite projection of spin on momentum) - a remarkable phenomenon arising from a collective motion of particles and antiparticles in the Dirac sea. The recent discovery of Dirac semimetals with chiral quasiparticles opens a fascinating possibility to study this phenomenon in condensed matter experiments. Here we report on the measurement of magnetotransport in zirconium pentatelluride, ZrTe 5, that provides strong evidence for the chiral magnetic effect. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments show that this material's electronic structure is consistent with a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal. We observe a large negative magnetoresistance when the magnetic field is parallel with the current. The measured quadratic field dependence of the magnetoconductance is a clear indication of the chiral magnetic effect. The observed phenomenon stems from the effective transmutation of a Dirac semimetal into a Weyl semimetal induced by parallel electric and magnetic fields that represent a topologically non-trivial gauge field background. We expect that the chiral magnetic effect may emerge in a wide class of materials that are near the transition between the trivial and topological insulators.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1303010
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1182500; OSTI ID: 1456941
Report Number(s):
BNL-112484-2016-JA; BNL-107404-2015-JA; R&D Project: MA012MABA; KC0202050
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 6; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 702 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Quantum transport in topological semimetals under magnetic fields journal June 2017
Quantum transport in topological semimetals under magnetic fields (II) journal April 2019
Dirac cone protected by non-symmorphic symmetry and three-dimensional Dirac line node in ZrSiS journal May 2016
Room-temperature chiral charge pumping in Dirac semimetals journal January 2017
A magnetic topological semimetal Sr1−yMn1−zSb2 (y, z < 0.1) journal July 2017
Evidence for topological type-II Weyl semimetal WTe2 journal December 2017
Nonreciprocal responses from non-centrosymmetric quantum materials journal September 2018
Evidence for Weyl fermions in a canonical heavy-fermion semimetal YbPtBi journal November 2018
Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in gallium arsenide quantum wells journal January 2019
The discovery of dynamic chiral anomaly in a Weyl semimetal NbAs journal March 2020
Galvanomagnetic properties of the putative type-II Dirac semimetal PtTe2 journal July 2018
Berry phase theory of planar Hall effect in topological insulators journal October 2018
Collective modes in multi-Weyl semimetals journal September 2016
Superconductivity in HfTe5 across weak to strong topological insulator transition induced via pressures journal March 2017
Polaronic transport in Ag-based quaternary chalcogenides journal September 2017
Anomalous transport properties of Dirac and Weyl semimetals (Review Article) journal June 2018
Experimental observation of conductive edge states in weak topological insulator candidate HfTe 5 journal December 2018
Highly mobile carriers in a candidate of quasi-two-dimensional topological semimetal AuTe 2 Br journal October 2019
Strain-induced spontaneous Hall effect in an epitaxial thin film of a Luttinger semimetal journal April 2019
Theory for the negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in the quantum limit of Kramers Weyl semimetals journal November 2018
Pseudo chiral anomaly in zigzag graphene ribbons journal October 2019
Lifshitz transition mediated electronic transport anomaly in bulk ZrTe 5 journal January 2017
Varying the chiral magnetic effect relative to flow in a single nucleus-nucleus collision journal July 2018
Flux free single crystal growth and detailed physical property characterization of Bi 1−x Sb x (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) topological insulator journal August 2019
Berry curvature induced thermopower in type-I and type-II Weyl semimetals journal August 2019
Possible manifestations of the chiral anomaly and evidence for a magnetic field induced topological phase transition in the type-I Weyl semimetal TaAs journal September 2019
Disorder and magnetoconductivity in tilted Weyl semimetals journal February 2020
Dielectric response and novel electromagnetic modes in three-dimensional Dirac semimetal films journal June 2016
Quantum oscillations without magnetic field journal January 2017
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Anomalous thermoelectric phenomena in lattice models of multi-Weyl semimetals journal October 2017
Dynamical correlation functions and the related physical effects in three-dimensional Weyl/Dirac semimetals journal February 2018
Rotational strain in Weyl semimetals: A continuum approach journal May 2018
Tunable topological semimetal states with ultraflat nodal rings in strained YN journal July 2018
Planar Hall effect in the type-II Dirac semimetal VAl 3 journal August 2018
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Infrared spectroscopic measurements of structural transition and charge dynamics in 1 T TiTe 2 under pressure journal March 2019
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Electrical conductivity of quark-gluon plasma in strong magnetic fields journal December 2016
Field theoretic perspectives of the Wigner function formulation of the chiral magnetic effect journal November 2017
Remarks on the Chern-Simons photon term in the QED description of graphene journal September 2018
Dynamics of Vortices in Chiral Media: The Chiral Propulsion Effect journal October 2018
Mixed Axial-Torsional Anomaly in Weyl Semimetals journal February 2019
Optical manifestations of domains with constant topological charge density journal September 2019
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Magnetic fields in heavy ion collisions: flow and charge transport journal March 2020
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The Property, Preparation and Application of Topological Insulators: A Review journal July 2017
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Momentum Space Topology and Non-Dissipative Currents † journal December 2018
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Holographic charged fluid with chiral electric separation effect journal September 2018
Novel quantum phenomena induced by strong magnetic fields in heavy-ion collisions journal January 2017
Mass Correction to Chiral Kinetic Equations journal January 2021
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Unusual interlayer quantum transport behavior caused by the zeroth Landau level in YbMnBi2 journal September 2017
Chiral Landau levels in Weyl semimetal NbAs with multiple topological carriers journal May 2018
Spin-momentum locking and spin-orbit torques in magnetic nano-heterojunctions composed of Weyl semimetal WTe2 journal September 2018
Non-saturating quantum magnetization in Weyl semimetal TaAs journal March 2019
Anomalous Hall effect in ZrTe5 journal March 2018
Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe5 journal May 2019
Quantum Oscillations from Nontrivial States in Quasi-Two-Dimensional Dirac Semimetal ZrTe5 Nanowires journal March 2019
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Intrinsic magnetoresistance in three-dimensional Dirac materials with low carrier density journal August 2018
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Pseudoscalar condensation induced by chiral anomaly and vorticity for massive fermions journal January 2017
Torsional Chiral Magnetic Effect in a Weyl Semimetal with a Topological Defect journal April 2016
Three-Dimensional Chiral Lattice Fermion in Floquet Systems journal November 2018
Chirality Josephson Current Due to a Novel Quantum Anomaly in Inversion-Asymmetric Weyl Semimetals journal November 2018
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Probing anomalous driving text January 2019
Thermal Conductivity of HfTe 5 : A Critical Revisit journal November 2019
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Topological properties of the chiral magnetic effect in multi-Weyl semimetals journal August 2017
Negative Longitudinal Magnetoresistance from the Anomalous N = 0 Landau Level in Topological Materials journal September 2017
Mirror Anomaly in Dirac Semimetals journal January 2018
Chiral sound waves in strained Weyl semimetals journal December 2019
Aspects of the pseudo chiral magnetic effect in 2D Weyl-Dirac matter journal November 2018
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Constraints on the chiral magnetic effect using charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in pPb and PbPb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider text January 2018
Negative magnetoresistance without well-defined chirality in the Weyl semimetal TaP journal May 2016
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Pressure-induced topological phase transitions and structural transition in 1T-TiTe 2 single crystal journal January 2018
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Chiral Landau levels in Weyl semimetal NbAs with multiple topological carriers text January 2018
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