Magnetotransport in semiconductors and two-dimensional materials from first-principles

Magnetic fields influence electrical transport in materials, with changes quantified by magnetotransport coefficients such as the magnetoresistance (MR), Hall mobility and Hall factor. In this talk, we present a first-principles method to study magnetotransport phenomena in materials by solving the Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) with ab-initio electron-phonon collisions in the presence of an external magnetic field [1]. We apply this approach to various semiconductors and two-dimensional (2D) materials, computing in each case the MR, Hall mobility and Hall factors. Our results are in very good agreement with experiments and shed light on the microscopic mechanisms governing magnetotransport.

We will also show an extension of our method to include the Berry curvature, which enables studies of magnetotransport in quantum materials with topologically non-trivial band structures. Magnetotransport results for a topological semimetal will be discussed.