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REVIEW 4 major objections 5 minor 32 references

Giant odd-parity magnetoresistance from proximity-induced topological states

T0 review · 4 major / 5 minor · reviewed 2026-08-06 · deepseek-v4-flash

Pith's one-line read This paper reports odd-parity magnetoresistance up to 1,150% at 1 T in a 3-nm α-Sn film on (In,Fe)Sb, explained by magnetic-proximity-induced tilted Weyl cones.

desk verdict A credible group reports a potentially record OMR in α-Sn/(In,Fe)Sb, but the giant 1,150% number rests on an unverified single-channel current assumption and a one-parameter model fit, so the central claim is not established. read the letter →

arxiv 2507.23166 v1 pith:ZVKIVMTB submitted 2025-07-31 cond-mat.mtrl-sci cond-mat.mes-hall

classification cond-mat.mtrl-scicond-mat.mes-hall
keywords odd-paritymagnetoresistancemagneticproximityeffectWeylsemimetaltiltedconesalpha-Sn/(InFe)SbheterostructureShubnikov-deHaasoscillationsfieldsensor
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal

The pith

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The reading

This paper reports that a 3-nanometer film of the narrow-gap semiconductor α-Sn grown on the ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)Sb shows odd-parity magnetoresistance (OMR)—an antisymmetric resistance change when the magnetic field is reversed—reaching up to 1,150% at 1 T and 2 K. Ordinary magnetoresistance is even under field reversal by Onsager reciprocity, so an antisymmetric component of this size is unexpected. The authors attribute the effect to magnetic proximity from (In,Fe)Sb breaking time-reversal symmetry in the tin layer and creating tilted, Weyl-like linear bands; a Boltzmann transport model with oppositely tilted Weyl cones reproduces the measured angular dependence of the OMR. If correct, the result is the largest OMR reported to date and points toward magnetic sensors with roughly an order of magnitude higher sensitivity than commercial Hall devices.

What carries the argument

The central object is the α-Sn/(In,Fe)Sb heterojunction, where the magnetic proximity effect is argued to transform a nominally trivial 3-nm α-Sn film into one with nearly gapless, tilted linear bands. The named theoretical object is the oppositely tilted Weyl cone: a pair of Weyl nodes of opposite chirality whose Dirac cones are slanted in opposite directions in momentum space. The load-bearing identity is the Boltzmann-transport result that this tilt configuration produces an odd current-density component linear in the magnetic field, $j_{\mathrm{odd}} \propto \alpha_x E_x B_x + \alpha_y E_x B_y$ for current along x, whose angular dependence is controlled by the tilt constants; fitting that expression to the three-plane rotation data with $\alpha_y/\alpha_x = 4.29$ is what connects the measured OMR to the proposed mechanism.

What would settle it

Measure the same Hall-bar geometry at 2 K and 1 T on a control sample in which the (In,Fe)Sb layer is replaced by an equally thick nonmagnetic InSb layer, keeping the α-Sn thickness and growth conditions identical: the 1,150% antisymmetric signal should disappear if it comes from magnetic proximity and tilted Weyl cones, while any residual antisymmetric resistance would point to a current-path or Hall artifact.

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Extended reading notes

Core claim

The central claim is the observation of odd-parity magnetoresistance reaching 1,150% at 1 T in an epitaxial α-Sn/(In,Fe)Sb bilayer, defined as $R_{\mathrm{odd}}(B)/R(0)$ with $R_{\mathrm{odd}}(B) = [R(B)-R(-B)]/2$. Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations show a single two-dimensional Fermi surface whose Berry phase of about 0.65 indicates linear dispersion, and density-functional calculations for an 18-monolayer α-Sn slab with Fe near the interface show a nearly gapless, tilted linear band near $-0.25$ eV. The antisymmetric resistance vanishes when the magnetic field is perpendicular to the film and follows the predicted pattern when the field is rotated in three orthogonal planes; a semiclassical Boltzmann model of oppositely tilted Weyl cones, fitted with tilt anisotropy $\alpha_y/\alpha_x = 4.29$, reproduces the full angular dependence. The paper concludes that magnetic proximity induces these tilted topological states in the thin tin layer and that the OMR is their transport signature.

Load-bearing premise

The measured antisymmetric voltage is treated as an intrinsic property of the α-Sn layer, which requires the (In,Fe)Sb layer to be insulating at 2 K so all 10 μA flows through the α-Sn; if a parallel current path exists through (In,Fe)Sb or the InSb buffer, the odd voltage could include Hall or contact artifacts.

Editorial extensions

If this is right

  • At 1 T and 2 K the OMR ratio reaches 1,150%, more than three orders of magnitude above previously reported odd-parity magnetoresistance values.
  • Because the antisymmetric resistance grows monotonically with field and is largest for B parallel to the current, the device provides a linear field-direction sensor that does not rely on carrier mobility the way Hall sensors do.
  • The angular dependence of the OMR in three rotation planes matches a Boltzmann model with a single fitted tilt anisotropy of 4.29, the ratio of the two tilt constants.
  • The magnetic proximity effect promotes a 3-nm α-Sn film from a trivial narrow-gap semiconductor to a system with a two-dimensional Fermi surface with Berry phase near 0.65, tying thin-film transport to topological band structure.

Reading between the lines

Editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Because the OMR is argued to scale with the tilt anisotropy of the linear bands, gating the α-Sn layer to move the Fermi level through the band should change the measured angular pattern; that tunable check is not reported in the paper.
  • The same heterostructure recipe could be tried with other narrow-gap semiconductors or magnetic insulators with higher Curie temperatures, potentially extending the effect toward room temperature.
  • The estimated sensor sensitivity of 11.5 mV/mT/V assumes the 1-T antisymmetric voltage scales with the bias voltage; a direct noise-equivalent-field measurement would be needed to confirm the practical advantage over commercial Hall sensors.
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Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, and a circularity audit.

Referee Report

4 major / 5 minor

Summary. The paper reports a large odd-parity magnetoresistance (OMR) in a heterostructure of 3-nm α-Sn on the ferromagnetic semiconductor (In,Fe)Sb on an InSb substrate. At 2 K and 1 T, the antisymmetric resistance extracted as [R(B)-R(-B)]/2 is claimed to reach 1,150% of the zero-field resistance R(0)=0.68 Ω. The authors argue that this OMR arises from tilted Weyl cones in the α-Sn layer, induced by the magnetic proximity effect, and support this with Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations showing a 2D Fermi surface with linear dispersion, density-functional band structures, and a Boltzmann transport model fitted to the angular dependence of the OMR.

Significance. If correct, this would be the largest odd-parity magnetoresistance reported to date by about an order of magnitude and would open a new route to sensitive magnetic-field sensing. The manuscript includes useful band-structure calculations and a careful SdH analysis. However, the central quantitative claim depends on the unverified assumption that the measured R(0) is the resistance of the α-Sn layer alone, and the theoretical 'prediction' of the angular dependence is actually obtained by fitting a free parameter to the same data. These issues currently prevent the claims from being accepted.

major comments (4)
  1. [Supplementary Note 2; Methods (SdH analysis)] The OMR ratio is normalized to R(0)=0.68 Ω, but the claim that this is the resistance of the α-Sn layer alone rests on the unverified assumption that at I=10 μA all current flows in α-Sn. The flat R(I) below 10 μA shown in Supplementary Fig. S2(a) is also consistent with a fixed parallel conductance, and the operating current sits at the onset of the nonlinearity attributed to leakage. More critically, the SdH analysis in Methods and Fig. 3(e) detects a 3D Fermi surface assigned to bulk InSb, which demonstrates that a parallel conducting path exists in the same stack. Please quantify the conductance of each layer (e.g., from the SdH carrier densities and mobilities) or show a direct measurement that rules out a shunt; otherwise the 1,150% ratio cannot be assigned to α-Sn.
  2. [Fig. 4; 'Tilted Weyl cones model' in Methods] The agreement between the calculated angular dependence and the experimental data is obtained by setting w_y/w_x = 4.29, which is fitted to the same experimental data shown in Fig. 4(a). This is a one-parameter fit, not a parameter-free prediction, and the statement that the model 'well reproduces' and 'strongly supports' the tilted-cone origin is therefore overstated. In addition, the main text says the derivation of Eq. (1) is in the Methods, but the Methods section only presents Eq. (3) from reference 25 and does not derive Eq. (1); either provide the derivation or state explicitly that Eq. (1) is a special case of Eq. (3).
  3. [First principles calculations; Supplementary Note 4] The DFT model is described inconsistently: the main text says 'Fe atoms are distributed on the top layer' of the 18-ML α-Sn slab, whereas Supplementary Note 4 says 'a single Fe atom is embedded as a dopant on the lowest Sn layer.' Since the magnetic proximity effect acts at the α-Sn/(In,Fe)Sb interface, the latter is physically appropriate, but the discrepancy must be corrected. More fundamentally, replacing the (In,Fe)Sb ferromagnetic semiconductor by a single substitutional Fe atom in the α-Sn slab is a strong simplification whose effect on the predicted tilt asymmetry is not benchmarked against any experimental observable other than the fitted OMR angular dependence.
  4. [Fig. 2] The raw R(B) and R(-B) traces are presented, but without error bars, multiple sweeps, or a current-reversal check. Given that Rodd at 1 T is reported as ~11.5×R(0), which is a surprisingly large antisymmetric component, the reproducibility of the signal and the absence of thermoelectric or contact asymmetries should be explicitly demonstrated.
minor comments (5)
  1. [Section 3 (after Fig. 3h)] The sentence 'X and Y are on the Brillouin zone boundary in k-space along the kx and kx directions' should read 'along the kx and ky directions'.
  2. [Abstract and Summary] The claim that the OMR is 'more than three orders of magnitude' larger than previous reports is inconsistent with Supplementary Table S1, where the previous largest value is 40% (bilayer graphene/Cr2Ge2Te6); the present 1,150% value is about 29 times larger, roughly one and a half orders of magnitude. The summary's 'more than two orders of magnitude' is also too strong.
  3. [Fig. 4 and main text] The statement in the main text that the OMR changes 'approximately as a cosine function' is not consistent with the peak positions in the yz and xy rotations (105° and 35°, respectively); please rephrase to reflect the actual angular dependence.
  4. [References] Reference 19 is an arXiv preprint; if a published version exists, it should be cited, or the preprint status should be noted explicitly.
  5. [Methods (First principles calculations)] The on-site Coulomb parameter is given as U = -2.5 eV, which is an unusual sign convention for GGA+U; a brief explanation of this convention and its origin would aid reproducibility.

Circularity Check

1 steps flagged · score 6.0 of 10

The tilted-Weyl-cone 'prediction' of the OMR angular dependence is a one-parameter fit to the same data, so the central theoretical explanation reduces to a fit.

  1. fitted input called prediction [Main text, Fig. 4 discussion (paragraph containing w_y/w_x = 4.29); Methods section 'Tilted Weyl cones model']
    "When we set w_y/w_x = 4.29, the theoretically predicted current density well reproduces the angular dependence of the experimentally observed OMR, as shown in Fig. 4a and b. The fitted parameter w_y/w_x = 4.29 means that the tilt condition is anisotropic between the kx and ky directions. This anisotropy is consistent with the anisotropy of band structure in the Γ-X and Γ-Y directions seen in the calculated band structure (Fig. 3h). This good agreement between the experimental result (Fig. 4a) and theoretical calculation (Fig."

    The 'theoretically predicted current density' is not independently predicted; w_y/w_x is a free parameter fitted to the very same angular OMR data that the theory is then said to reproduce. Eq. (1) is a linear combination of B_x and B_y with coefficients w_x and w_y, so after fixing the field magnitude and fitting the single ratio w_y/w_x = 4.29 to Fig. 4a (plus an overall scale), the model is guaranteed to match the measured cosine-like angular shape. The subsequent 'good agreement' is therefore a one-parameter fit, not an out-of-sample confirmation of tilted Weyl cones. The DFT calculation is invoked only qualitatively as band anisotropy ('consistent'), not to compute w_y/w_x.

full rationale

The paper contains substantial independent content: the OMR observation, the SdH analysis, and the DFT calculations are not themselves circular. The circularity is localized to the claim that the tilted-Weyl-cone Boltzmann model 'well explains' the OMR. Eq. (1) has the form j_x ∝ w_x E_x B_x + w_y E_x B_y; after the authors 'set' w_y/w_x = 4.29 and call it a 'fitted parameter,' the angular curve is an optimized representation of the same Fig. 4a data, not a prediction verified against it. No independent determination of w_y/w_x from the DFT band structure or from SdH is provided; the DFT is used only to say the anisotropy is 'consistent.' Hence the key theoretical validation is a fitted input called a prediction, making the central explanation partially circular. The Boltzmann expression itself is imported from the independent ref. 25, so that citation is not circular; the self-citations (refs. 13, 19) are not solely load-bearing because the paper recomputes the band structure here. The unverified single-layer current assumption affects the magnitude of the OMR ratio but is a correctness risk rather than a circularity. Score 6 reflects that one central 'prediction' reduces by construction to a one-parameter fit.

Assumptions & free parameters 2 free parameters · 5 assumptions · 0 invented entities

The central claim of a 1,150% OMR and its tilt-Weyl-cone explanation depend on a single fitted tilt ratio, a DFT model with an Fe-atom proxy, and the assumption that all current flows in α-Sn. These are the main unproven inputs that a reader would need to accept without direct evidence.

free parameters (2)
  • w_y/w_x (tilt ratio) = 4.29
    Fitted to reproduce the experimental angular dependence of the OMR in Fig. 4a; not independently extracted from the DFT band structure or from any other measurement.
  • GGA+U parameter U for α-Sn = -2.5 eV
    Chosen to reproduce bulk and slab electronic structure of α-Sn, borrowed from prior work but effectively a tuning parameter for the DFT band structure used here.
assumptions (5)
  • domain assumption The tilted Weyl cone Boltzmann transport model of ref. 25 applies to the 2D Fermi surface of α-Sn
    The paper applies a model derived for 3D Weyl semimetals to a 2D electron system without justifying the extension; the 2D Dirac cone is not a Weyl node in the usual sense.
  • domain assumption The α-Sn layer carries essentially all of the current because (In,Fe)Sb is insulating at low temperature
    Supplementary note 2 argues this, but no direct measurement of current partitioning is provided; leakage into the InSb buffer at currents near 10 μA is acknowledged as a possibility.
  • ad hoc to paper A single substitutional Fe atom in the α-Sn slab captures the magnetic proximity effect of (In,Fe)Sb
    The DFT model uses an Fe dopant on the lowest Sn layer (Supplementary note 4), a proxy that does not represent the actual (In,Fe)Sb ferromagnetic semiconductor interface.
  • domain assumption The fan plot intercept yields a Berry phase of 0.65, consistent with a linear band
    Standard Lifshitz-Kosevich analysis is used, but the extracted value 0.65 is notably above the 0.5 expected for a purely linear band; the paper does not discuss this discrepancy.
  • standard math Onsager reciprocity does not apply because time-reversal symmetry is broken
    The B||I geometry and magnetic ordering break TRS, permitting odd-in-B terms; this is the standard justification for OMR.

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Pith. "Pith review of Giant odd-parity magnetoresistance from proximity-induced topological states." pith.science (2026). https://pith.science/paper/ZVKIVMTB

@misc{pith2026250723166,
  author       = {Pith},
  title        = {Pith review of: Giant odd-parity magnetoresistance from proximity-induced topological states},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://pith.science/paper/ZVKIVMTB}},
  note         = {Machine review of arXiv:2507.23166}
}
read the original abstract

Magnetoresistance typically exhibits even symmetry with respect to the magnetic field, owing to time reversal symmetry (TRS) as dictated by Onsager reciprocity relations. However, in certain systems where TRS is broken, magnetoresistance may acquire an odd component with respect to the magnetic field, referred to as odd parity magnetoresistance (OMR). To date, reported OMR values have been modest, usually restricted to a few tens of percent even under high magnetic fields. Here, we report the discovery of a giant OMR reaching up to 1,150% under a relatively low field of 1 T in a heterostructure composed of 3 nm thick alpha Sn and a ferromagnetic semiconductor, (In,Fe)Sb. Although alpha Sn in this thickness range is a trivial narrow gap semiconductor, analysis of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations combined with ab initio calculations reveals the emergence of tilted topological surface states, induced via magnetic proximity from the (In,Fe)Sb layer. The observed OMR behavior is well explained by a Boltzmann transport model assuming the presence of oppositely tilted Weyl cones in the alpha Sn band structure. Our findings not only shed new light on the physics of OMR but also suggest promising avenues for its application in electronic and spintronic devices, such as ultrasensitive magnetic sensors.

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Reference graph

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