Quantized electrochemical transport in Weyl semimetals
arXiv:2012.09307 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.035102
Abstract
We show that under the effect of an external electric field and a gradient of chemical potential, a topological electric current can be induced in Weyl semimetals without inversion and mirror symmetries. We derive analytic expressions for the nonlinear conductivity tensor and show that it is nearly quantized for small tilting when the Fermi levels are close to the Weyl nodes. When the van Hove point is much larger than the largest Fermi level, the band structure is described by two linearly dispersing Weyl fermions with opposite chirality. In this case, the electrochemical response is fully quantized in terms of fundamental constants and the scattering time, and it can be used to measure directly the topological charge of Weyl points. We show that the electrochemical chiral current may be derived from an electromagnetic action similar to axion electrodynamics, where the position-dependent chiral Fermi level plays the role of the axion field. This posits our results as a direct consequence of the chiral anomaly.
13 pages, 8 figures. To be published in PRB
References in corpus (12)
- Topological Field Theory of Time-Reversal Invariant Insulators
- The Chiral Magnetic Effect
- Phase transition between the quantum spin Hall and insulator phases in 3D: emergence of a topological gapless phase
- Universal dynamical conductance in graphite
- Topological response in Weyl semimetals and the chiral anomaly
- Space-time dispersion of graphene conductivity
- Berry phase effect in anomalous thermoelectric transport
- Unusual Microwave Response of Dirac Quasiparticles in Graphene
- Chiral Anomaly and Diffusive Magnetotransport in Weyl Metals
- Strain induced Chiral Magnetic Effect in Weyl semimetals
- Holographic Anomalous Conductivities and the Chiral Magnetic Effect
- Floquet spectrum and driven conductance in Dirac materials: Effects of Landau-Zener-Stückelberg-Majorana interferometry