Nonlinear Hall effects

Abstract

The Hall effects comprise one of the oldest but most vital fields in condensed matter physics, and they persistently inspire new findings, such as quantum Hall effects and topological phases of matter. The recently discovered nonlinear Hall effect is a new member of the family of Hall effects. It is characterized as a transverse Hall voltage in response to two longitudinal currents in the Hall measurement, but it does not require time-reversal symmetry to be broken. It has deep connections to symmetry and topology and, thus, opens new avenues by which to probe the spectral, symmetry and topological properties of emergent quantum materials and phases of matter. In this Perspective, we present an overview of the recent progress regarding the nonlinear Hall effect. We discuss the open problems, the prospects of the use of the nonlinear Hall effect in spectroscopic and device applications, and generalizations to other nonlinear transport effects. The recent measurement of a nonlinear Hall effect has provided a new way to probe the spectral, symmetry and topological properties of quantum materials. This Perspective discusses the open questions around this new effect and potential applications.