Observation of giant non-reciprocal charge transport from quantum Hall states in a topological insulator

Chunfeng Li; Rui Wang; Shuai Zhang; Yuyuan Qin; Zhe Ying; Boyuan Wei; Zheng Dai; Fengyi Guo; Wei Chen; Rong Zhang; Baigeng Wang; Xuefeng Wang; Fengqi Song

doi:10.1038/s41563-024-01874-4

Observation of giant non-reciprocal charge transport from quantum Hall states in a topological insulator

Nat Mater. 2024 Sep;23(9):1208-1213. doi: 10.1038/s41563-024-01874-4. Epub 2024 Apr 19.

Authors

Chunfeng Li^#^{1

2}, Rui Wang^#^{1

3}, Shuai Zhang^#⁴, Yuyuan Qin^#¹, Zhe Ying¹, Boyuan Wei¹, Zheng Dai¹, Fengyi Guo¹, Wei Chen¹, Rong Zhang^{2

5}, Baigeng Wang¹, Xuefeng Wang⁶, Fengqi Song^{7

8}

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
² Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials, State Key Laboratory of Spintronics Devices and Technologies, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
³ Hefei National Laboratory, Hefei, China.
⁴ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
⁵ Department of Physics, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
⁶ Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Photonic and Electronic Materials, State Key Laboratory of Spintronics Devices and Technologies, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
⁷ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, and School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. [email protected].
⁸ Institute of Atom Manufacturing, Nanjing University, Suzhou, China. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 38641696
DOI: 10.1038/s41563-024-01874-4

Abstract

Symmetry breaking in quantum materials is of great importance and can lead to non-reciprocal charge transport. Topological insulators provide a unique platform to study non-reciprocal charge transport due to their surface states, especially quantum Hall states under an external magnetic field. Here we report the observation of non-reciprocal charge transport mediated by quantum Hall states in devices composed of the intrinsic topological insulator Sn-Bi_1.1Sb_0.9Te₂S, which is attributed to asymmetric scattering between quantum Hall states and Dirac surface states. A giant non-reciprocal coefficient of up to 2.26 × 10⁵ A^-1 is found. Our work not only reveals the properties of non-reciprocal charge transport of quantum Hall states in topological insulators but also paves the way for future electronic devices.

Abstract

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