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Updated: Jun 6, 2025

Advanced Experimental Methods for Low-temperature Magnetotransport Measurement of Novel Materials
Published on: January 21, 2016
Abnormally enhanced Hall Lorenz number in the magnetic Weyl semimetal NdAlSi
Nan Zhang1, Daifeng Tu1,2, Ding Li1,2
1Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China.
Abstract:
In Landau's celebrated Fermi liquid theory, electrons in a metal obey the Wiedemann-Franz law at the lowest temperatures. This law states that electron heat and charge transport are linked by a constant L0, i.e., the Sommerfeld value of the Lorenz number (L). Such relation can be violated at elevated temperatures where the abundant inelastic scattering leads to a reduction of the Lorenz number (L < L0). Here, we report a rare case of remarkably enhanced Lorenz number (L > L0) discovered in the magnetic topological semimetal NdAlSi. Measurements of the transverse electrical and thermal transport coefficients reveal that the Hall Lorenz number Lxy in NdAlSi starts to deviate from the canonical value far above its magnetic ordering temperature. Moreover, Lxy displays strong nonmonotonic temperature and field dependence, reaching its maximum value close to 2L0 in an intermediate parameter range. Further analysis excludes charge-neutral excitations as the origin of enhanced Lxy. Alternatively, we attribute it to the Kondo-type elastic scattering off localized 4f electrons, which creates a peculiar energy distribution of the quasiparticle relaxation time. Our results provide insights into the perplexing transport phenomena caused by the interplay between charge and spin degrees of freedom.
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