Observation of Anomalous Planar Hall Effect Induced by One-Dimensional Weak Antilocalization

The confinement of electrons in one-dimensional (1D) space highlights the prominence of the role of electron interactions or correlations, leading to a variety of fascinating physical phenomena. The quasi-1D electron states can exhibit a unique spin texture under spin–orbit interaction (SOI) and thus could generate a robust spin current by forbidden electron backscattering. Direct detection of such 1D spin or SOI information, however, is challenging due to complicated techniques. Here, we identify an anomalous planar Hall effect (APHE) in the magnetotransport of quasi-1D van der Waals (vdW) topological materials as exemplified by Bi₄Br₄, which arises from the quantum interference correction of 1D weak antilocalization (WAL) to the ordinary planar Hall effect and demonstrates a deviation from the usual sine and cosine curves. The occurrence of 1D WAL is correlated to the line-shape Fermi surface and persistent spin texture of (100) topological surface states of Bi₄Br₄, as revealed by both our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations. By generalizing the observation of APHE to other non-vdW bulk materials, this work provides a possible characteristic of magnetotransport for identifying the spin/SOI information and quantum interference behavior of 1D states in 3D topological material.