Engineering the in-plane anomalous Hall effect in Cd$_3$As$_2$ thin films

TL;DR

This paper predicts topological phase transitions and in-plane anomalous Hall effects in 33Cd3As2 thin films under in-plane magnetic fields, highlighting control parameters like film thickness and orientation.

Contribution

It introduces new pathways to realize in-plane anomalous Hall effects by breaking specific symmetries in 33Cd3As2 thin films, supported by theoretical modeling.

Findings

Prediction of two topological phase transitions in 33Cd3As2 thin films.

Proposal of methods to observe quantized Hall plateaus induced by in-plane Zeeman fields.

Identification of control parameters for driving phase transitions, such as film thickness and growth orientation.

Abstract

We predict two topological phase transitions for cadmium arsenide (\ce{Cd3As2}) thin films under in-plane magnetic field, taking advantage of a four-band $k\cdot p$ model and effective $g$ factors calculated from first principles. Film thickness, growth direction and in-plane Zeeman coupling strength can all serve as control parameters to drive these phase transitions. For (001) oriented \ce{Cd3As2} thin films, a two dimensional Weyl semimetal phase protected by $C_{2z}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry can be realized using an in-plane magnetic field, which has recently been reported in our companion paper. We then put forth two pathways to achieve in-plane anomalous Hall effects (IPAHE). By either introducing a trigonal warping term or altering the growth orientation, the emergent $C_{2z} \mathcal{T}$ symmetry can be broken. Consequently, in the clean limit and at low temperatures, quantized Hall plateaus induced by in-plane Zeeman fields become observable.