Nonlinear charge transport properties in chiral tellurium

TL;DR

This paper investigates the nonlinear charge transport in chiral tellurium, demonstrating the existence of a large, detectable NCTE Hall current driven by the material's chiral structure, with potential applications in heat sensors and logic devices.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of the NCTE Hall effect in tellurium using ab initio calculations and symmetry considerations, highlighting the role of orbital magnetic moments.

Findings

NCTE Hall current flows parallel to the chiral axis.

Large NCTE Hall current predicted, detectable experimentally.

Orbital magnetic moments influence the effect near the valence band top.

Abstract

Extensive research has focused on phenomena arising from the chirality of crystalline or magnetic structures. Recently, we have proposed the "Nonlinear Chiral Thermo-Electric (NCTE) Hall effect," in which current flows in the direction of the cross product of the electric field and the temperature gradient in a material with a chiral structure. Despite its importance for device applications such as heat flow sensors and logic circuits, there are no quantitative demonstrations in actual materials. We investigate the NCTE Hall effect and the second-order response to the electric field in Te, which hosts the chiral crystal structure, based on $ab \ initio$ calculations and symmetry argument. We clarify that the NCTE Hall current can flow parallel to the chiral axis, whereas such behavior is absent for the second-order response to the DC electric field. Quantitative estimation predicts the large NCTE Hall current which is sufficiently detectable in experiments, and the orbital magnetic moment will play an important role in the vicinity of the top of the valence band.