Chirality-dependent planar Hall effect in inhomogeneous Weyl semimetals

Abstract

The planar Hall effect (PHE), the appearance of an in-plane transverse voltage in the presence of co-planar electric ($\mathbf{E}$) and magnetic ($\mathbf{B}$) fields, occurs in regular Weyl semimetals (WSMs) as one of the fundamental manifestations of chiral anomaly. A major issue, therefore, is whether there are alternate route to PHE, without invoking chiral anomaly. We demonstrate that PHE exists in an inhomogeneous Weyl semimetal (IWSM) even in the absence of the aforesaid anomaly. Using semiclassical Boltzmann transport theory, we show that PHE appears in an IWSM due to the strain-induced chiral gauge potential, which couples to the Weyl fermions of opposite chirality with opposite sign. Our study shows a resultant phase shift in the current associated with opposite chirality Weyl nodes, which, remarkably, leads to a finite chirality-dependent planar Hall effect (CPHE) in the IWSMs. Interestingly, we show that a small tilt in the Weyl node can generate a pure CPHE even in the absence of an applied magnetic field. The CPHE has important implications in `chiralitytronics'. We also discuss the experimental feasibility of these novel effects of strain in type-I IWSMs.