Nernst-Effect-Modulated Bilinear Magnetoelectric Resistance in Chiral Tellurium Nanosheets

Abstract

The chiral crystal structure and strong spin-orbit coupling of tellurium (Te) make it an appealing platform for exploring unconventional radial spin textures, which can be probed via bilinear magnetoelectric resistance (BMR). Recent studies have consistently reported a pronounced BMR in Te nanosheets under in-plane current and out-of-plane magnetic field, suggesting complex coexisting mechanisms. Here, to clarify this discrepancy, a systematic investigation on the second-harmonic longitudinal resistance (R_{\parallel }^{2\omega }) is performed in the circular disc device made of single-crystalline Te nanosheets. The R_{\parallel }^{2\omega } is found to be prominent under out-of-plane magnetic fields, in agreement with previous observations. Notably, the out-of-plane BMR reverses sign on opposite sides of the current path, which cannot be explained by spin texture considerations. Instead, the out-of-plane BMR is attributed to the Joule-heating-induced Nernst effect, as further supported by COMSOL thermal-distribution simulations. These results reveal the crucial role of thermoelectric effects in modulating BMR in chiral crystals, offering new insight into the long-standing discrepancy between experimental observations and theoretical predictions.

Keywords

bilinear magnetoelectric resistance / Nernst effect / spin / tellurium nanosheet

References

[1] Z. Hua, C. Niu, S. Joy, et al., “Tunable Interplay of Orbital and Spin Magnetization in Trigonal Tellurium” (2026), https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2507.14292.

[2] T. Ideue, K. Hamamoto, S. Koshikawa, et al., “Bulk Rectification Effect in a Polar Semiconductor,” Nature Physics 13, no. 6 (2017): 578–583.

[3] F. Qin, W. Shi, T. Ideue, et al., “Superconductivity in a Chiral Nanotube,” Nature Communications 8, no. 1 (2017): 14465.

[4] F. Pop, P. Auban-Senzier, E. Canadell, G. L. J. A. Rikken, and N. Avarvari, “Electrical Magnetochiral Anisotropy in a Bulk Chiral Molecular Conductor,” Nature Communications 5, no. 1 (2014): 3757.

[5] V. Krstić, S. Roth, M. Burghard, K. Kern, and G. L. J. A. Rikken, “Magneto-Chiral Anisotropy in Charge Transport Through Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes,” Journal of Chemical Physics 117, no. 24 (2002): 11315–11319.

[6] F. Calavalle, M. Suárez-Rodríguez, B. Martín-García, et al., “Gate-Tuneable and Chirality-Dependent Charge-to-Spin Conversion in Tellurium Nanowires,” Nature Materials 21, no. 5 (2022): 526–532.

[7] G. Gatti, D. Gosálbez-Martínez, S. S. Tsirkin, et al., “Radial Spin Texture of the Weyl Fermions in Chiral Tellurium,” Physical Review Letters 125, no. 21 (2020): 216402.

[8] M. Sakano, M. Hirayama, T. Takahashi, et al., “Radial Spin Texture in Elemental Tellurium With Chiral Crystal Structure,” Physical Review Letters 124, no. 13 (2020): 136404.

[9] G. Qiu, C. Niu, Y. Wang, et al., “Quantum Hall Effect of Weyl Fermions in n-Type Semiconducting Tellurene,” Nature Nanotechnology 15, no. 7 (2020): 585–591.

[10] V. A. Shalygin, A. N. Sofronov, L. E. Vorob'ev, and I. I. Farbshtein, “Current-Induced Spin Polarization of Holes in Tellurium,” Physics of the Solid State 54, no. 12 (2012): 2362–2373.

[11] P. Wang, Z. Li, X. Xia, et al., “Anisotropic Te/PdSe₂ van der Waals Heterojunction for Self-Powered Broadband and Polarization-Sensitive Photodetection,” Small 20, no. 34 (2024): 2401216.

[12] P. Wang, H. Mu, T. Yun, et al., “High Rectification and Gate-Tunable Photoresponse in 1D-2D Lateral van der Waals Heterojunctions,” Innovation Materials 3, no. 1 (2025): 100113.

[13] D. Gosálbez-Martínez, A. Crepaldi, and O. V. Yazyev, “Diversity of Radial Spin Textures in Chiral Materials,” Physical Review B 108, no. 20 (2023): L201114.

[14] T. Furukawa, Y. Shimokawa, K. Kobayashi, and T. Itou, “Observation of Current-Induced Bulk Magnetization in Elemental Tellurium,” Nature Communications 8, no. 1 (2017): 954.

[15] T. Furukawa, Y. Watanabe, N. Ogasawara, K. Kobayashi, and T. Itou, “Current-Induced Magnetization Caused by Crystal Chirality in Nonmagnetic Elemental Tellurium,” Physical Review Research 3, no. 2 (2021): 023111.

[16] X. Lin, W. Yang, K. L. Wang, and W. Zhao, “Two-Dimensional Spintronics for Low-Power Electronics,” Nature Electronics 2, no. 7 (2019): 274–283.

[17] S.-H. Yang, R. Naaman, Y. Paltiel, and S. S. P. Parkin, “Chiral Spintronics,” Nature Reviews Physics 3, no. 5 (2021): 328–343.

[18] Y. Wang, G. Qiu, R. Wang, et al., “Field-Effect Transistors Made From Solution-Grown Two-Dimensional Tellurene,” Nature Electronics 1, no. 4 (2018): 228–236.

[19] J. Chen, Y. Zhou, J. Yan, et al., “Room-Temperature Valley Transistors for Low-Power Neuromorphic Computing,” Nature Communications 13, no. 1 (2022): 7758.

[20] B. Cheng, L. Li, N. Zhang, et al., “Topological Field-Effect Transistor Based on Quasi-Two-Dimensional Tellurium Flakes,” Physical Review Applied 17, no. 5 (2022): 054044.

[21] G. Jnawali, Y. Xiang, S. M. Linser, et al., “Ultrafast Photoinduced Band Splitting and Carrier Dynamics in Chiral Tellurium Nanosheets,” Nature Communications 11, no. 1 (2020): 3991.

[22] C. Niu, S. Huang, N. Ghosh, et al., “Tunable Circular Photogalvanic and Photovoltaic Effect in 2D Tellurium With Different Chirality,” Nano Letters 23, no. 8 (2023): 3599–3606.

[23] X. Zhuo, Q. Wang, B. Cheng, et al., “Ultrafast Dynamics of Photoexcited Carriers in Tellurium in the Vicinity of Weyl Nodes,” Physical Review B 110, no. 1 (2024): 014311.

[24] P. He, S. S. L. Zhang, D. Zhu, et al., “Bilinear Magnetoelectric Resistance as a Probe of Three-Dimensional Spin Texture in Topological Surface States,” Nature Physics 14, no. 5 (2018): 495–499.

[25] P. He, S. M. Walker, S. S. L. Zhang, et al., “Observation of Out-of-Plane Spin Texture in a SrTiO₃(111) Two-Dimensional Electron Gas,” Physical Review Letters 120, no. 26 (2018): 266802.

[26] G. L. J. A. Rikken and N. Avarvari, “Strong Electrical Magnetochiral Anisotropy in Tellurium,” Physical Review B 99, no. 24 (2019): 245153.

[27] L. E. Golub, E. L. Ivchenko, and B. Spivak, “Electrical Magnetochiral Current in Tellurium,” Physical Review B 108, no. 24 (2023): 245202.

[28] C. Niu, G. Qiu, Y. Wang, et al., “Tunable Chirality-Dependent Nonlinear Electrical Responses in 2D Tellurium,” Nano Letters 23, no. 18 (2023): 8445–8453.

[29] G. L. J. A. Rikken, J. Fölling, and P. Wyder, “Electrical Magnetochiral Anisotropy,” Physical Review Letters 87, no. 23 (2001): 236602.

[30] R. Gupta and A. Droghetti, “Current-Induced Spin Polarization in Chiral Tellurium: A First-Principles Quantum Transport Study,” Physical Review B 109, no. 15 (2024): 155141.

[31] X. Liu, I. Souza, and S. S. Tsirkin, “Intrinsic Electrical Magnetochiral Anisotropy in Trigonal Tellurium From First Principles,” Physical Review B 112, no. 12 (2025): 125143.

[32] S. Li, C. Niu, P. D. Ye, and A. Hoffmann, “Non-Reciprocal Magnetoresistances in Chiral Tellurium,” Journal of Applied Physics 139, no. 6 (2026): 063905.

[33] J.-K. Qin, P.-Y. Liao, M. Si, et al., “Raman Response and Transport Properties of Tellurium Atomic Chains Encapsulated in Nanotubes,” Nature Electronics 3, no. 3 (2020): 141–147.

[34] G. Qiu, S. Huang, M. Segovia, et al., “Thermoelectric Performance of 2D Tellurium With Accumulation Contacts,” Nano Letters 19, no. 3 (2019): 1955.

[35] J. Ma, B. Cheng, L. Li, et al., “Unveiling Weyl-Related Optical Responses in Semiconducting Tellurium by Mid-Infrared Circular Photogalvanic Effect,” Nature Communications 13, no. 1 (2022): 5425.

[36] C. Niu, G. Qiu, Y. Wang, et al., “Gate-Tunable Strong Spin-Orbit Interaction in Two-Dimensional Tellurium Probed by Weak Antilocalization,” Physical Review B 101, no. 20 (2020): 205414.

[37] M. Suárez-Rodríguez, B. Martín-García, W. Skowroński, et al., “Odd Nonlinear Conductivity Under Spatial Inversion in Chiral Tellurium,” Physical Review Letters 132, no. 4 (2024): 046303.

[38] B. Cheng, Y. Gao, Z. Zheng, et al., “Giant Nonlinear Hall and Wireless Rectification Effects at Room Temperature in the Elemental Semiconductor Tellurium,” Nature Communications 15, no. 1 (2024): 5513.

[39] J. Chen, T. Zhang, J. Wang, et al., “Topological Phase Change Transistors Based on Tellurium Weyl Semiconductor,” Science Advances 8, no. 23 (2022): eabn3837.

[40] T. Kim, C. H. Choi, P. Byeon, et al., “Growth of High-Quality Semiconducting Tellurium Films for High-Performance p-Channel Field-Effect Transistors With Wafer-Scale Uniformity,” npj 2D Materials and Applications 6, no. 1 (2022): 4.

[41] P. Yang, J. Zha, G. Gao, et al., “Growth of Tellurium Nanobelts on h-BN for p-Type Transistors With Ultrahigh Hole Mobility,” Nano-Micro Letters 14, no. 1 (2022): 109.

[42] C. Niu, L. Long, Y. Zhang, et al., “Ultralow Voltage Operation of p- and n-FETs Enabled by Self-Formed Gate Dielectric and Metal Contacts on 2D Tellurium,” Advanced Materials 37, no. 20 (2025): 2418142.

[43] H. Liu, J. Wu, J. Ma, et al., “A van der Waals Interfacial Junction Transistor for Reconfigurable Fuzzy Logic Hardware,” Nature Electronics 7, no. 10 (2024): 876–884.

[44] H. M. Benia, C. Lin, K. Kern, and C. R. Ast, “Reactive Chemical Doping of the Bi₂Se₃ Topological Insulator,” Physical Review Letters 107, no. 17 (2011): 177602.

[45] J. L. Collins, A. Tadich, W. Wu, et al., “Electric-Field-Tuned Topological Phase Transition in Ultrathin Na₃Bi,” Nature 564, no. 7736 (2018): 390–394.

[46] N. Zhang, G. Zhao, L. Li, et al., “Magnetotransport Signatures of Weyl Physics and Discrete Scale Invariance in the Elemental Semiconductor Tellurium,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 21 (2020): 11337–11343.

[47] C.-Z. Li, L.-X. Wang, H. Liu, J. Wang, Z. M. Liao, and D. P. Yu, “Giant Negative Magnetoresistance Induced by the Chiral Anomaly in Individual Cd₃As₂ Nanowires,” Nature Communications 6, no. 1 (2015): 10137.

[48] N. P. Ong and S. Liang, “Experimental Signatures of the Chiral Anomaly in Dirac–Weyl Semimetals,” Nature Reviews Physics 3, no. 6 (2021): 394–404.

[49] M. Suárez-Rodríguez, B. Martín-García, F. Calavalle, et al., “Symmetry Origin and Microscopic Mechanism of Electrical Magnetochiral Anisotropy in Tellurium,” Physical Review B 111, no. 2 (2025): 024405.

[50] M. Suárez-Rodríguez, F. de Juan, I. Souza, M. Gobbi, F. Casanova, and L. E. Hueso, “Nonlinear Transport in Non-Centrosymmetric Systems,” Nature Materials 24, no. 7 (2025): 1005–1018.

[51] Q. Liu, X. Lin, and L. Zhu, “Absence of Spin-Orbit Torque and Discovery of Anisotropic Planar Nernst Effect in CoFe Single Crystal,” Advanced Science 10, no. 27 (2023): 2301409.

[52] S. Lin, W. Li, Z. Chen, J. Shen, B. Ge, and Y. Pei, “Tellurium as a High-Performance Elemental Thermoelectric,” Nature Communications 7, no. 1 (2016): 10287.

[53] H. Peng, N. Kioussis, and G. J. Snyder, “Elemental Tellurium as a Chiral p-Type Thermoelectric Material,” Physical Review B 89, no. 19 (2014): 195206.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2026 The Author(s). SmartMat published by Tianjin University and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.