Lorentz Skew Scattering Nonreciprocal Magneto-Transport

TL;DR

This paper uncovers a new microscopic mechanism called Lorentz skew scattering responsible for nonreciprocal magneto-transport in materials with broken inversion symmetry, supported by theoretical and experimental evidence in BiTeBr.

Contribution

It introduces the Lorentz skew scattering mechanism as a dominant cause of NRMT, revealing a quartic scaling law and providing a new understanding of high-mobility systems.

Findings

Lorentz skew scattering causes quartic NRMT scaling.

The mechanism dominates in high-mobility BiTeBr.

The discovery suggests universal principles for enhancing NRMT in topological materials.

Abstract

In materials with broken inversion symmetry, nonreciprocal magneto-transport (NRMT) manifests as a bilinear dependence of charge conductivity on applied electric (E) and magnetic (B) fields. This phenomenon is deeply rooted in symmetry and electronic quantum geometry, holding promise for novel rectification and detector technologies. Existing experimental studies generally attribute NRMT to Zeeman-driven mechanisms and exhibit quadratic scaling with conductivity. Here, we report a previously unknown NRMT microscopic mechanism - Lorentz skew scattering (LSK) - revealed through the discovery of an unprecedented quartic scaling law of NRMT as well as quantitative agreement between theory and experiment in BiTeBr. LSK emerges from the interplay of Lorentz force and skew scattering, bridging classical field effect to quantum scattering effect on the Fermi surface. We demonstrate that the LSK dominates NRMT in BiTeBr, and elucidate that this dominance over other possible contributions stems from high mobility and strong Rashba splitting. The finding of LSK mechanism is of unique importance because it unveils the leading NRMT effect in high-mobility systems and suggests a universal principle towards strong NRMT by enhancing electronic relaxation time in topological materials, rendering a new designing idea for low-dissipation rectifiers and high-performance quantum electronics.