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Title: Emptying Dirac valleys in bismuth using high magnetic fields

Abstract

The Fermi surface of elemental bismuth consists of three small rotationally equivalent electron pockets, offering a valley degree of freedom to charge carriers. A relatively small magnetic field can confine electrons to their lowest Landau level. This is the quantum limit attained in other dilute metals upon application of sufficiently strong magnetic field. Here in this paper we report on the observation of another threshold magnetic field never encountered before in any other solid. Above this field, Bempty, one or two valleys become totally empty. Drying up a Fermi sea by magnetic field in the Brillouin zone leads to a manyfold enhancement in electric conductance. We trace the origin of the large drop in magnetoresistance across Bempty to transfer of carriers between valleys with highly anisotropic mobilities. The non-interacting picture of electrons with field-dependent mobility explains most results but the Coulomb interaction may play a role in shaping the fine details.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China). Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and School of Physics; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China). Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and School of Physics
  3. Lab. of Physics and Study of Materials (LPEM, ESPCI), Paris (France); College de France, Paris (France)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Univ. of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Tokyo (Japan). Dept. of Engineering Science
  6. Huazhong Univ. of Science and Technology, Wuhan (China). Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center and School of Physics; Lab. of Physics and Study of Materials (LPEM, ESPCI), Paris (France)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
OSTI Identifier:
1361485
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-22096
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; 11574097; 2016YFA0401704; 20120772; 16K05437; 15KK0155; 15H02108
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 8; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; High Magnetic Field Science; High Magnetic Fields Quantum-limit

Citation Formats

Zhu, Zengwei, Wang, Jinhua, Zuo, Huakun, Fauqué, Benoît, McDonald, Ross David, Fuseya, Yuki, and Behnia, Kamran. Emptying Dirac valleys in bismuth using high magnetic fields. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms15297.
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Zhu, Zengwei, Wang, Jinhua, Zuo, Huakun, Fauqué, Benoît, McDonald, Ross David, Fuseya, Yuki, & Behnia, Kamran. Emptying Dirac valleys in bismuth using high magnetic fields. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15297
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Zhu, Zengwei, Wang, Jinhua, Zuo, Huakun, Fauqué, Benoît, McDonald, Ross David, Fuseya, Yuki, and Behnia, Kamran. Fri . "Emptying Dirac valleys in bismuth using high magnetic fields". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15297. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1361485.
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@article{osti_1361485,
title = {Emptying Dirac valleys in bismuth using high magnetic fields},
author = {Zhu, Zengwei and Wang, Jinhua and Zuo, Huakun and Fauqué, Benoît and McDonald, Ross David and Fuseya, Yuki and Behnia, Kamran},
abstractNote = {The Fermi surface of elemental bismuth consists of three small rotationally equivalent electron pockets, offering a valley degree of freedom to charge carriers. A relatively small magnetic field can confine electrons to their lowest Landau level. This is the quantum limit attained in other dilute metals upon application of sufficiently strong magnetic field. Here in this paper we report on the observation of another threshold magnetic field never encountered before in any other solid. Above this field, Bempty, one or two valleys become totally empty. Drying up a Fermi sea by magnetic field in the Brillouin zone leads to a manyfold enhancement in electric conductance. We trace the origin of the large drop in magnetoresistance across Bempty to transfer of carriers between valleys with highly anisotropic mobilities. The non-interacting picture of electrons with field-dependent mobility explains most results but the Coulomb interaction may play a role in shaping the fine details.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms15297},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 8,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15297
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    Works referencing / citing this record:

    Thermodynamic evidence of magnetic-field-induced complete valley polarization in bismuth
    journal, February 2019

    Magnetoresistance and valley degree of freedom in bulk bismuth
    journal, July 2018

    • Zhu, Zengwei; Fauqué, Benoît; Behnia, Kamran
    • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 30, Issue 31
    • DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/aaced7

    Corrections to the magnetoresistance formula for semimetals with Dirac electrons: the Boltzmann equation approach validated by the Kubo formula
    journal, October 2018

    • Owada, Mitsuaki; Awashima, Yudai; Fuseya, Yuki
    • Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 30, Issue 44
    • DOI: 10.1088/1361-648x/aae03c

    Terahertz Faraday and Kerr rotation spectroscopy of Bi 1 − x Sb x films in high magnetic fields up to 30 tesla
    journal, September 2019

    Ground-state atlas of a three-dimensional semimetal in the quantum limit
    journal, October 2019

    Metallic state in a strongly interacting spinless two-valley electron system in two dimensions
    journal, January 2020

    Metallic state in a strongly interacting spinless two-valley electron system in two dimensions
    text, January 2019

    Ground-state atlas of a three-dimensional semimetal in the quantum limit
    text, January 2019

    Thermodynamic evidence of magnetic-field-induced complete valley polarization in bismuth
    journal, February 2019

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