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Theory for the Charge-Density-Wave Mechanism of 3D Quantum Hall Effect

Fang Qin (覃昉), Shuai Li, Z. Z. Du, C. M. Wang, Wenqing Zhang, Dapeng Yu, Hai-Zhou Lu, and X. C. Xie
Phys. Rev. Lett. 125, 206601 – Published 9 November 2020
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Abstract

The charge-density-wave (CDW) mechanism of the 3D quantum Hall effect has been observed recently in ZrTe5 [Tang et al., Nature 569, 537 (2019)]. Different from previous cases, the CDW forms on a one-dimensional (1D) band of Landau levels, which strongly depends on the magnetic field. However, its theory is still lacking. We develop a theory for the CDW mechanism of 3D quantum Hall effect. The theory can capture the main features in the experiments. We find a magnetic field induced second-order phase transition to the CDW phase. We find that electron-phonon interactions, rather than electron-electron interactions, dominate the order parameter. We extract the electron-phonon coupling constant from the non-Ohmic IV relation. We point out a commensurate-incommensurate CDW crossover in the experiment. More importantly, our theory explores a rare case, in which a magnetic field can induce an order-parameter phase transition in one direction but a topological phase transition in other two directions, both depend on one magnetic field.

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  • Received 9 March 2020
  • Accepted 23 September 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.206601

© 2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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Digging into the 3D Quantum Hall Effect

Published 9 November 2020

Theorists invoke electron-phonon interactions to explain the recent observation of the quantum Hall effect in a 3D electronic system.

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Authors & Affiliations

Fang Qin (覃昉)1,2,3, Shuai Li1, Z. Z. Du1,4, C. M. Wang5,1,4, Wenqing Zhang1,3, Dapeng Yu1,4, Hai-Zhou Lu1,4,*, and X. C. Xie6,7,8

  • 1Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech), Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 2CAS Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China
  • 3Shenzhen Municipal Key-Lab for Advanced Quantum Materials and Devices, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 4Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 5Department of Physics, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China
  • 6International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
  • 7CAS Center for Excellence in Topological Quantum Computation, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 8Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences, West Building 3, No. 10, Xibeiwang East Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100193, China

  • *Corresponding author. luhz@sustech.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 125, Iss. 20 — 13 November 2020

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