Disorder Driven Anisotropic Nonlinear Hall Effect in the Kagome Metal YbCo6Ge6 at Room Temperature.

We show that the kagome metal YbCo6Ge6 displays a remarkable phenomenon: its intrinsic structural disorder and short-range correlated motifs, rather than diminishing performance, constitute the primary mechanism for a robust and anisotropic nonlinear Hall effect (NLHE). This effect is sustained across a wide temperature range from 2 to 350 K, achieving a nonlinear responsivity of up to ∼4.5 × 10-3 m/V at 70 K, higher than known disordered and engineered quantum heterostructures. Extrinsic scattering mechanisms, modulated by structural disorder variations in the kagome lattice, primarily govern the nonlinear Hall response. Yet, a nearly temperature-independent intrinsic Berry curvature dipole signal persists, demonstrating that quantum geometry remains significant despite the presence of disorder. These findings challenge the prevailing view that structural disorder in three-dimensional quantum materials are detrimental and should be minimized. Instead, such correlated disorder is shown to be functional assets, establishing a new paradigm in materials design where short-range motifs, rather than perfect crystallinity, enable room-temperature nonlinear Hall functionality for advanced rectification and detection technologies.