Abstract
Orbital degrees of freedom offer a largely untapped route to emergent dynamical phenomena in correlated quantum materials. However, it remains unclear whether collective orbital states can intrinsically generate both reactive and memory functionalities in a bulk system. Here we show that in the ferrimagnet Mn₃Si₂Te₆, nonequilibrium reconfiguration of chiral orbital currents produces both emergent inductance and nonvolatile memristance as intrinsic properties of a single crystal. At low frequency and under a magnetic field along the c axis, coherent orbital-current domains generate robust clockwise inductive I-V loops. At higher frequency and low field, current-driven first-order reconfiguration leads to incomplete reversal and metastable trapping, producing an intrinsic electromotive force and a finite remanent voltage at zero current. These results establish orbital currents as a class of quantum state variables that encode both reactive and memory functionalities, opening routes toward intrinsically reconfigurable and energy-efficient electronic systems.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author [GC].
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation via Grant No. DMR 2204811.
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T.R.C. conceived the idea of this work and conducted measurements of the physical properties and data analysis; G.S. synthesized the single crystals; A.Q. characterized the crystal structure of the samples; H.Z., Y.Z., F.Y., and L.C. contributed to valuable discussions and revisions to the manuscript; G.C. directed this work, conducted experiments of the physical properties and data analysis, and wrote the paper.
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Communications Physics thanks Sheng Ran and the other, anonymous, reviewer for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.
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Cao, T.R., Schebel, G., Quane, A. et al. Inductance meets memory in a quantum magnet. Commun Phys (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-026-02622-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42005-026-02622-7
