Anisotropic Nodal-Line-Derived Large Anomalous Hall Conductivity in ZrMnP and HfMnP*

The nontrivial band structure of semimetals has attracted substantial research attention in condensed matter physics and materials science in recent years owing to its intriguing physical properties. Within this class, a group of nontrivial materials known as nodal-line semimetals is particularly important. Nodal-line semimetals exhibit the potential effects of electronic correlation in nonmagnetic materials, whereas they enhance the contribution of the Berry curvature in magnetic materials, resulting in high anomalous Hall conductivity (AHC). In this study, two ferromagnetic compounds, namely ZrMnP and HfMnP, are selected, wherein the abundance of mirror planes in the crystal structure ensures gapped nodal lines at the Fermi energy. These nodal lines result in one of the largest AHC values of 2840 Ω⁻¹ cm⁻¹, with a high anomalous Hall angle of 13.6% in these compounds. First-principles calculations provide a clear and detailed understanding of nodal line-enhanced AHC. The finding suggests a guideline for searching large AHC compounds.