Giant anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in a heavy fermion ferromagnet

Abstract

The anomalous Hall and Nernst effects refer to the perpendicular voltage drop generated by a magnetic material's magnetization in response to an applied current and temperature gradient. These effects can be harnessed to determine the Berry curvature and hold potential for future applications in electronic devices and thermoelectric energy conversion. We investigate the anomalous Hall and Nernst effects in the heavy-fermion ferromagnet CeCrGe$_3$ and its non-4f analog ferromagnet LaCrGe$_3$. We find that CeCrGe$_3$ exhibits a giant anomalous Hall angle and an anomalous Nernst coefficient, reaching values as high as 33% and ~ 10 $\mathrm{μV\ K}^{-1}$, respectively, among the largest reported for topological magnets. Based on electronic band-structure calculations, we identify a series of topological flat bands carrying strong Berry curvature with a pronounced Ce 4f orbital character in CeCrGe$_3$, which are absent in LaCrGe$_3$, highlighting the crucial role of Kondo flat bands in generating large anomalous transport responses. Furthermore, we identify a breakdown of the anomalous Hall scaling relation and the nonlinear anomalous Mott relation, which we attribute to the break of the topological Kondo flat bands at finite temperatures.