Evolution and breakdown of chiral anomaly in Weyl semiconductor tellurium

Abstract:Chiral anomaly in topological materials manifests as negative longitudinal magnetoresistance, yet the tunability and evolution of this effect remain elusive. Here we show that doped tellurium serves as a versatile platform to realize a giant negative longitudinal magnetoresistance that is highly tunable via the Fermi level and magnetic field. By moving the Fermi level towards the Weyl point, we observe a pronounced enhancement of negative magnetoresistance, which arises from chiral anomaly and robustly persists up to ambient temperature. Beyond the quantum limit, the system exhibits positive linear magnetoconductance, serving as a compelling transport signature of the chiral anomaly in the lowest Landau level. Notably, in the extreme quantum limit at cryogenic temperatures, the magnetoresistance undergoes a dramatic reversal from negative to positive. This reversal points to a potential field-induced phase transition into a collective electronic state driven by enhanced electron-electron interactions. Our findings provide valuable insights into the unconventional chiral transport and emergent correlated quantum states under extreme magnetic fields.

Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci); Applied Physics (physics.app-ph); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2610.13084 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

(or arXiv:2610.13084v1 [cond-mat.mtrl-sci] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.13084 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Commun. Phys.(2026)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-026-02901-3 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources

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