Theory of anomalous Hall effect in transition-metal pentatelluride $\mathrm{ZrTe}_{5}$ and $\mathrm{HfTe}_{5}$

TL;DR

This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the anomalous Hall effect in nonmagnetic transition-metal pentatellurides ZrTe5 and HfTe5, highlighting the role of Berry curvature and magnetic field effects.

Contribution

It introduces a semiclassical framework to understand the magnetic field dependence of the anomalous Hall conductivity in these materials.

Findings

Anomalous Hall conductivity is induced by Berry curvature in the presence of Zeeman splitting.

The Hall conductivity decays rapidly with magnetic field and vanishes at certain conditions.

A Hall plateau can form when the chemical potential is fixed, explaining experimental observations.

Abstract

The anomalous Hall effect has considerable impact on the progress of condensed matter physics and occurs in systems with time-reversal symmetry breaking. Here we theoretically investigate the anomalous Hall effect in nonmagnetic transition-metal pentatelluride $\mathrm{ZrTe_{5}}$ and $\mathrm{HfTe}_{5}$. In the presence of Zeeman splitting and Dirac mass, there is an intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity induced by the Berry curvature in the semiclassical treatment. In a finite magnetic field, the anomalous Hall conductivity rapidly decays to zero for constant spin-splitting and vanishes for the magnetic-field-dependent Zeeman energy. A semiclassical formula is derived to depict the magnetic field dependence of the Hall conductivity, which is beneficial for experimental data analysis. Lastly, when the chemical potential is fixed in the magnetic field, a Hall conductivity plateau arises, which may account for the observed anomalous Hall effect in experiments.