Topological linear magnetoresistivity and thermoconductivity induced by noncentrosymmetric Berry curvature

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that noncentrosymmetric Berry curvature can induce universal linear magnetoresistivity and thermoconductivity with B-scaling, supported by theoretical analysis and experimental data from 2D and 3D materials.

Contribution

It introduces a universal mechanism linking Berry curvature distribution to linear magnetotransport phenomena, expanding understanding beyond conventional models.

Findings

Noncentrosymmetric Berry curvature leads to linear magnetoresistivity and thermoconductivity.

The theory explains recent experimental observations in MnBi2Te4 flakes.

The mechanism differs from conventional anisotropic magnetoresistance.

Abstract

The Berry curvature plays a key role in the magnetic transport of topological materials. Yet, it is not clear whether the Berry curvature by itself can give rise to universal transport phenomena with specific scaling behaviors. In this work, based on the semiclassical Boltzmann formalism and the symmetry analysis, we show that the noncentrosymmetric distribution of the Berry curvature generally results in linear magnetoresistivity and thermoconductivity both exhibiting the B-scaling behavior. We then study such kind of topological linear magnetoresistivity in the 2D MnBi2Te4 flakes and the 3D spin-orbit-coupled electron gas, the former showing good agreement with the experimental observations. The difference between our mechanism and the conventional anisotropic magnetoresistance is elucidated. Our theory proposes a universal scenario for the topological linear magnetoresistivity and thermoconductivity and predicts such effects to occur in various materials, which also provides a reasonable explanation for the recent observations of linear magnetoresistivity.