Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5
Open accessAbstract
A magnetotransport study of zirconium pentatelluride now reveals evidence for a chiral magnetic effect, a striking macroscopic manifestation of the quantum and relativistic nature of Weyl semimetals. The chiral magnetic effect is the generation of an electric current induced by chirality imbalance in the presence of a magnetic field. It is a macroscopic manifestation of the quantum anomaly1,2 in relativistic field theory of chiral fermions (massless spin 1/2 particles with a definite projection of spin on momentum)—a remarkable phenomenon arising from a collective motion of particles and antiparticles in the Dirac sea. The recent discovery3,4,5,6 of Dirac semimetals with chiral quasiparticles opens a fascinating possibility to study this phenomenon in condensed matter experiments. Here we report on the measurement of magnetotransport in zirconium pentatelluride, ZrTe5, that provides strong evidence for the chiral magnetic effect. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments show that this material’s electronic structure is consistent with a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal. We observe a large negative magnetoresistance when the magnetic field is parallel with the current. The measured quadratic field dependence of the magnetoconductance is a clear indication of the chiral magnetic effect. The observed phenomenon stems from the effective transmutation of a Dirac semimetal into a Weyl semimetal induced by parallel electric and magnetic fields that represent a topologically non-trivial gauge field background. We expect that the chiral magnetic effect may emerge in a wide class of materials that are near the transition between the trivial and topological insulators.
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- Authors
- Li, Q., Kharzeev, D. E., Zhang, C., Huang, Y., Pletikosić, I., Fedorov, A. V., Zhong, R. D., Schneeloch, J. A., Gu, G. D., & Valla, T.
- Affiliations
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- Corresponding author
- Li, Qiang
- Kharzeev, Dmitri E.
- Valla, T.
- ORCID
- Venue
- Nature Physics
- Published
- 2016-02-08
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 550-554
- ISSN
- 1745-2473 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-2481
- OpenAlex
- W1638792950
- Semantic Scholar
- 20389b3a409b5495499b1273ff45c3f4130ec4a9
- Cited by
- 1,048
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 67 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 91 · 2021: 128 · 2020: 113 · 2019: 112 · 2018: 131 · 2017: 121 · 2016: 78 · 2015: 7 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 69.67
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Nature Physics (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy (-AC02-05CH11231, Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231, DE-FG- 88ER40388, 05CH11231, DEAC-02-98CH10886, No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231, No. DE-AC02-98CH10886, DE AC02 05CH11231, -AC02-98 CH 10886, DE-AC02-)
- Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-AC02, Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231, DE-AC02-05CH11231., DEAC0298CH10886, No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231, AC02–05CH11231, AC02-98CH10886)
- Nuclear Physics (DEAC02-05CH11231, DE- FG88ER40388, DE-AC02-98CH10886)
- Army Research Office (DE-AC02-05CH11231, W911-NF-12-1-0461, W911NF)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › 2D Materials and Applications
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Condensed Matter Physics › Advanced Condensed Matter Physics
- Keywords
- chiral magnetic effect, ZrTe5, Weyl semimetals, Dirac semimetal, chiral anomaly, chirality imbalance, negative magnetoresistance, magnetoconductance, magnetotransport, angle-resolved photoemission
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