Nonlinear responses induced by inhomogeneous edge states in a centrosymmetric topological insulator
Nonlinear electrical responses, second-order transport effects beyond Ohm’s law, typically arise in systems where inversion symmetry (P) or time-reversal symmetry (T) is broken, such as in non-centrosymmetric crystals exhibiting the nonlinear Hall effect, or in magnetic systems showing non-reciprocal transport. Here, we report the unexpected discovery of nonlinear electrical responses, under T symmetric conditions, in a bulk centrosymmetric, non-magnetic topological insulator, ZrTe5. We show that this nonlinearity is modulated by external magnetic fields, measured position and the Fermi level (EF) shifting, originating from the evolution of inversion symmetry breaking induced by inhomogeneous spatial distributions of surface edge states (ESs). Our findings unveil a mechanism for nonlinear transport in centrosymmetric systems and highlight an additional route for designing nonlinear electronic responses based on topological surface states. Second-order electrical nonlinearity is conventionally thought to originate in crystals with noncentrosymmetric lattices or magnetic order. Here, the authors show another generation paradigm in bulk centrosymmetric, nonmagnetic ZrTe5, arising from an inhomogeneous surface edge-state distribution.
Authors
- Yuqiao Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3490-4182)
- Yitian Guo
- Jie Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3881-6948)
- Huazhan Liu
- Yan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-1179)
- Haomin Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6388-2432)
- Shengyuan A. Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6003-1501)
- Jingyan Song
- Chengxin Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9307-1489)
- Jianjun Ying (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0104-9098)
- Hao Hong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0641-1340)
- Xixiang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3478-6414)
- Dong Qiu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-6845-5574)
- Yang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6688-4773)
- Peng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-9045)
- Hui Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9749-2555)
- Zhanbo Fang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2601-8478)
- Chenxi Liu
- Kewen Zhang
- Yichao Yan
- Yanjun Li
- Chao Yang
Institutions
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HK)
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Peking University (CN)
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices (CN)
- King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (SA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-78979-8
- Primary Topic
- Topological Materials and Phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
- University of Electronic Science and Technology of China
- ShanghaiTech University
- China Electronics Technology Group Corporation
- National Science and Technology Major Project
- Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities