Third order nonlinear transport properties in topological chiral antiferromagnetic semimetal CoNb3S6

TL;DR

This paper investigates third order nonlinear transport phenomena in the topological antiferromagnetic semimetal CoNb3S6, revealing temperature-dependent behaviors linked to quantum metric effects and possible charge density wave states.

Contribution

It reports the observation of third order nonlinear transport properties in CoNb3S6 and explores their relation to magnetic transition and charge density waves, a novel finding in this material.

Findings

Third order nonlinear longitudinal response increases near the antiferromagnetic transition temperature.

Temperature-dependent nonlinear I-V behavior suggests possible charge density wave state.

Two plateaus in the third order nonlinear response may be related to CDW phenomena.

Abstract

The topology between Bloch states in reciprocal space has attracted tremendous attention in recent years. The quantum geometry of the band structure is composed of quantum metric as real part and berry curvature as imaginary part. While the Berry curvature, the Berry curvature dipole and Berry connection polarizability have been recently revealed by the first order anomalous hall, second order and third order nonlinear Hall effect respectively, the quantum metric induced second order nonlinear transverse and longitudinal response in topological antiferromagnetic material MnBi2Te4 was only very recently reported. Here we demonstrate the similar third order nonlinear transport properties in the topological antiferromagnetic CoNb3S6. We observed that the third order nonlinear longitudinal V3{\omega} xx increase significantly at the antiferromagnetic transition temperature TN ~ 29 K, which was probably induced by the quantum metric without time-reversal symmetry or inversion symmetry. Besides, temperature-dependent nonlinear behaviour was observed in the first order I-V curve below the Neel temperature TN, which was not reported in MnBi2Te4 and FeSn. Such nonlinear I-V behaviour hints for the possible existence of Charge Density Wave (CDW) state, which has been discovered in its sister material FeNb3S6. Simultaneously, two plateaus in the third order nonlinear longitudinal V3{\omega} xx~ I^{\omega} curve are observed, which is also speculated to be related with the possible CDW state. However, the genuine mechanism for the first order nonlinear I-V and its relation with the third order nonlinear transport call for more experimental investigations and theoretical interpretation. Our work provides a way to explore third harmonic nonlinear transport and interaction with magnetic order and CDW.