Colossal nonreciprocal Hall effect and broadband frequency mixing due to a room temperature nonlinear Hall effect

Abstract: Nonreciprocal (NR) charge transport in quantum materials has attracted enormous interest since it offers an avenue to investigate quantum symmetry related physics and holds many prospective applications such as rectification and photodetection over a wide range of frequencies. The NR transport reported to date occurs along the longitudinal direction with the NR resistance limited to a few percent of the ohmic resistance. Here we report a transverse nonreciprocal transport phenomenon with divergent nonreciprocity - colossal NR Hall effect. This is revealed in direct current (DC) measurements on the microscale Hall devices made of the Pt wires deposited by focused ion beam (FIB) on Si substrates and the Weyl semimetal NbP with FIB-deposited Pt electrodes at 0 magnetic field. When a DC is applied along the x-axis of the devices Ix, it generates a voltage along the y-axis Vy near room temperature, with Vy quadratically scaling with Ix. The transverse resistance, which shows a sign reversal upon switching the current direction, results from a colossal extrinsic nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE) rooted in the disorder scatterings in the Pt wires. While NbP was not found to show NLHE, the NLHE generated in the Pt electrodes can be transmitted to the NbP Hall devices, which yields a surprisingly large nonlinear anomalous Hall effect in NbP with the Hall angle (${\Theta_H}$) far exceeding the record value of the anomalous Hall angle of magnetic conductors at room temperature. Furthermore, we find such a strong NLHE can lead to broadband frequency mixing, with the frequency spectrum of the Hall voltage including 2nd-harmonic generation, sum & difference frequency generations, and other multiple wave mixing components. These results not only demonstrate the concept of the NRHE for the first time but also pave the way for exploring NLHE's applications in Thz communication, imaging, and energy harvesting.