Experimental evidence of giant chiral magnetic effect in type-II Weyl semimetal WP$_{2+δ}$ crystals (1708.03489v4)

Abstract: Chiral magnetic effect is a quantum phenomenon that is breaking of chiral symmetry of relativistic Weyl fermions by quantum fluctuation under paralleled electric field E and magnetic field B. Intuitively, Weyl fermions with different chirality, under stimulus of paralleled E and B, will have different chemical potential that gives rise to an extra current, whose role likes a chiral battery in solids. However, up to now, the experimental evidence for chiral magnetic effect is the negative longitudinal magnetoresistance rather than a chiral electric source. Here, totally different from previous reports, we observed the giant chiral magnetic effect evidenced by: 'negative' resistivity and corresponding voltage-current curves lying the second-fourth quadrant in type-II Weyl semimetal WP${2+\delta}$ under following conditions: the misaligned angle between E and B is smaller than 20$^\circ$, temperature <30 K and externally applied E<50 mA. Phenomenologically, based on macroscopic Chern-Simon-Maxwell equation, the giant chiral magnetic effect observed in WP${2+\delta}$ is attributed to two-order higher coherent time of chiral Weyl-fermion quantum state over Drude transport relaxation-time. This work demonstrates the giant chiral-magnetic/chiral-battery effect in Weyl semimetals.