Enhanced transverse electron transport via disordered composite formation

Abstract

Transverse electron transport in magnetic materials - manifested in effects such as the anomalous Hall and Nernst effects - holds promise for spintronic and thermoelectric applications. While recent advances have focused on enhancing such transport through topological single crystals via intrinsic mechanisms linked to Berry curvature, practical limitations remain due to their mechanical fragility and narrow material scope. Here, we demonstrate a distinct approach for transverse transport enhancement based on composite formation. Using both theoretical modeling and experiments, we show that disordered mixtures of two ferromagnetic materials can exhibit significantly stronger transverse electron deflection than either constituent alone. This enhancement originates from meandering electron pathways created by the disordered mixture of two materials and does not rely on long-range crystalline order. The identified requirements for this mechanism can be broadly satisfied across different material systems, offering a universal and tunable strategy to engineer large transverse responses in structurally robust platforms.