Diode effects are of great interest for both fundamental physics and modern technologies. Electrical diode effects (nonreciprocal transport) have been observed in Weyl systems. Optical diode effects arising from the Weyl fermions have been theoretically considered but not probed experimentally. Here, we report the observation of a nonlinear optical diode effect (NODE) in the magnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi, where the magnetization introduces a pronounced directionality in the nonlinear optical second-harmonic generation (SHG). We demonstrate a six-fold change of the measured SHG intensity between opposite propagation directions over a bandwidth exceeding 250 meV. Supported by density-functional theory, we establish the linearly dispersive bands emerging from Weyl nodes as the origin of this broadband effect. We further demonstrate current-induced magnetization switching and thus electrical control of the NODE. Our results advance ongoing research to identify novel nonlinear optical/transport phenomena in magnetic topological materials and further opens new pathways for the unidirectional manipulation of light.

In a PN junction, the separation between positive and negative charges leads to diode transport. In the past few years, the intrinsic diode transport in noncentrosymmetric polar conductors has attracted great interest, because it suggests novel nonlinear applications and provides a symmetry-sensitive probe of Fermi surface. Recently, such studies have been extended to noncentrosymmetric superconductors, realizing the superconducting diode effect. Here, we show that, even in a centrosymmetric crystal without directional charge separation, the spins of an antiferromagnet (AFM) can generate a spatial directionality, leading to an AFM diode effect. We observe large second-harmonic transport in a nonlinear electronic device enabled by the compensated AFM state of even-layered MnBi2Te4. We also report a novel electrical sum-frequency generation (SFG), which has been rarely explored in contrast to the well-known optical SFG in wide-gap insulators. We demonstrate that the AFM enables an in-plane field-effect transistor and harvesting of wireless electromagnetic energy. The electrical SFG establishes a powerful method to study nonlinear electronics built by quantum materials. The AFM diode effect paves the way for potential device concepts including AFM logic circuits, self-powered AFM spintronics, and other applications that potentially bridge nonlinear electronics with AFM spintronics.

Using circularly polarized light to control quantum matter is a highly intriguing topic in physics, chemistry and biology. Previous studies have demonstrated helicity-dependent optical control of chirality and magnetization, with important implications in asymmetric synthesis in chemistry; homochirality in biomolecules; and ferromagnetic spintronics. We report the surprising observation of helicity-dependent optical control of fully compensated antiferromagnetic order in two-dimensional even-layered MnBi2Te4, a topological axion insulator with neither chirality nor magnetization. To understand this control, we study an antiferromagnetic circular dichroism, which appears only in reflection but is absent in transmission. We show that the optical control and circular dichroism both arise from the optical axion electrodynamics. Our axion induction provides the possibility to optically control a family of [Formula: see text]-symmetric antiferromagnets ([Formula: see text], inversion; [Formula: see text], time-reversal) such as Cr2O3, even-layered CrI3 and possibly the pseudo-gap state in cuprates. In MnBi2Te4, this further opens the door for optical writing of a dissipationless circuit formed by topological edge states.

Quantum geometry in condensed-matter physics has two components: the real part quantum metric and the imaginary part Berry curvature. Whereas the effects of Berry curvature have been observed through phenomena such as the quantum Hall effect in two-dimensional electron gases and the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in ferromagnets, the quantum metric has rarely been explored. Here, we report a nonlinear Hall effect induced by the quantum metric dipole by interfacing even-layered MnBi2Te4 with black phosphorus. The quantum metric nonlinear Hall effect switches direction upon reversing the antiferromagnetic (AFM) spins and exhibits distinct scaling that is independent of the scattering time. Our results open the door to discovering quantum metric responses predicted theoretically and pave the way for applications that bridge nonlinear electronics with AFM spintronics.

We report angle resolved photoemission experiments on a newly discovered family of kagome metals RV_{6}Sn_{6} (R=Gd, Ho). Intrinsic bulk states and surface states of the vanadium kagome layer are differentiated from those of other atomic sublattices by the real-space resolution of the measurements with a small beam spot. Characteristic Dirac cone, saddle point, and flat bands of the kagome lattice are observed. Our results establish the two-dimensional (2D) kagome surface states as a new platform to investigate the intrinsic kagome physics.