Magnetic Breakdown and Chiral Magnetic Effect at Weyl-Semimetal Tunnel Junctions

Abstract

We investigate magnetotransport across an interface between two Weyl semimetals whose Weyl nodes project onto different interface momenta. Such an interface generically hosts Fermi arcs that connect Weyl nodes of identical chirality in different Weyl semimetals (homochiral connectivity) -- in contrast to surface Fermi arcs that connect opposite-chirality Weyl nodes within the same Weyl semimetal (heterochiral connectivity). We show that electron transport along the arcs with homochiral connectivity, in the presence of a longitudinal magnetic field, leads to a universal longitudinal magnetoconductance of $e^2/h$ per magnetic flux quantum. Furthermore, a weak tunnel coupling can result in a close encounter of two homochiral-connectivity Fermi arcs, enabling magnetic breakdown. Above the breakdown field the interface Fermi arc connectivity is effectively heterochiral, leading to a saturation of the conductance.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

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• Quantum description of Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals in a magnetic field
• Magnetotransport across Weyl semimetal grain boundaries
• Magneto tunnel conductance across twisted Weyl semimetal junctions
• In-plane Antiferromagnetism in Ferromagnetic Kagome Semimetal Co3Sn2S2