Title: Evidence for Dominant Phonon-Electron Scattering in Weyl Semimetal ${\mathrm{WP}}_2$

Abstract

Topological semimetals have revealed a wide array of novel transport phenomena, including electron hydrodynamics, quantum field theoretic anomalies, and extreme magnetoresistances and mobilities. However, the scattering mechanisms central to the fundamental transport properties remain largely unexplored. Here, we reveal signatures of significant phonon-electron scattering in the type-II Weyl semimetal ${\mathrm{WP}}_2$ via temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy. Over a large temperature range, we find that the decay rates of the lowest energy $A_1$ modes are dominated by phonon-electron rather than phonon-phonon scattering. In conjunction with first-principles calculations, a combined analysis of the momentum, energy, and symmetry-allowed decay paths indicates this results from finite momentum interband and intraband scattering of the electrons. The excellent agreement with theory further suggests that such results could be true for the acoustic modes. We thus provide evidence for the importance of phonons in the transport properties of topological semimetals and identify specific properties that may contribute to such behavior in other materials.

Authors:

Osterhoudt, Gavin B. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Osterhoudt, Gavin B."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-8618-7272"

Wang, Yaxian ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Wang, Yaxian"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4790-2880"

Garcia, Christina A. C. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Garcia, Christina A. C."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9259-3880"

Plisson, Vincent M. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Plisson, Vincent M."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4535-8906"

Gooth, Johannes; Felser, Claudia ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Felser, Claudia"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8200-2063"

Narang, Prineha ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Narang, Prineha"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-3956-4594"

Burch, Kenneth S.

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Burch, Kenneth S."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7541-0245"

Publication Date:

Wed Jan 27 00:00:00 EST 2021

Research Org.:

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (United States); Univ. of California, Oakland, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); US Army Research Office (ARO); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; German Research Foundation (DFG)

OSTI Identifier:

1763797

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1852677

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0018675; AC02-05CH11231; DMR-1231319; 18057522; DGE-1745303; GBMF8048; 390858490

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Physical Review. X

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Physical Review. X Journal Volume: 11 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2160-3308

Publisher:

American Physical Society

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; carrier dynamics; electrical conductivity; electronic structure; fermions; lattice dynamics; phonons; topological materials; Weyl semimetal; density functional theory; inelastic light scattering