DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP

Abstract

Here, we report the occurrence of reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. When the applied magnetic field H is above a critical value Hc, a reentrance appears as a peak in the temperature-dependent resistivity ρxx(T) at T=Tp, similar to that observed in graphite where it was attributed to local superconductivity. The Tp(H) relationship follows a power-law dependence Tp~(H–Hc)1/ν where ν can be derived from the temperature dependence of the zero-field resistivity ρ0(T)~Tν. From concurrent measurements of the transverse ρxx(T) and Hall ρxy(T) magnetoresistivities, we reveal a clear correlation between the rapidly increasing ρxy(T) and the occurrence of a peak in the ρxx(T) curve. Quantitative analysis indicates that the reentrant metallic behavior arises from the competition of the magnetoconductivity σxx(T) with an additional component Δσxx(T)=κHσxx(T) where κH=[ρxy(T)/ρxx(T)]2 is the Hall factor. We find that the Hall factor (κH≈0.4) at peak temperature Tp is nearly field independent, leading to the observed Tp(H) relationship. Furthermore, the reentrant metallic behavior in ρxx(T) also is reflected in the behavior of ρxx(H) that ranges from nonsaturating at T > 70K to saturation at liquid-helium temperatures. The latter can be explained with the magnetic field dependence of the Hall factor κH(H). Lastly, our paper demonstratesmore » that a semiclassical theory can account for the “anomalies” in the magnetotransport phenomena of NbP without invoking an exotic mechanism.« less

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [2]
  1. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States)
  2. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States);
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States);; Univ. of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN (United States)
  4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States);; Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1405299
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1394700
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 96; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE

Citation Formats

Xu, J., Bugaris, D. E., Xiao, Z. L., Wang, Y. L., Chung, D. Y., Kanatzidis, M. G., and Kwok, W. K. Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115152.
Xu, J., Bugaris, D. E., Xiao, Z. L., Wang, Y. L., Chung, D. Y., Kanatzidis, M. G., & Kwok, W. K. Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115152
Xu, J., Bugaris, D. E., Xiao, Z. L., Wang, Y. L., Chung, D. Y., Kanatzidis, M. G., and Kwok, W. K. Fri . "Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115152. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1405299.
@article{osti_1405299,
title = {Reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP},
author = {Xu, J. and Bugaris, D. E. and Xiao, Z. L. and Wang, Y. L. and Chung, D. Y. and Kanatzidis, M. G. and Kwok, W. K.},
abstractNote = {Here, we report the occurrence of reentrant metallic behavior in the Weyl semimetal NbP. When the applied magnetic field H is above a critical value Hc, a reentrance appears as a peak in the temperature-dependent resistivity ρxx(T) at T=Tp, similar to that observed in graphite where it was attributed to local superconductivity. The Tp(H) relationship follows a power-law dependence Tp~(H–Hc)1/ν where ν can be derived from the temperature dependence of the zero-field resistivity ρ0(T)~Tν. From concurrent measurements of the transverse ρxx(T) and Hall ρxy(T) magnetoresistivities, we reveal a clear correlation between the rapidly increasing ρxy(T) and the occurrence of a peak in the ρxx(T) curve. Quantitative analysis indicates that the reentrant metallic behavior arises from the competition of the magnetoconductivity σxx(T) with an additional component Δσxx(T)=κHσxx(T) where κH=[ρxy(T)/ρxx(T)]2 is the Hall factor. We find that the Hall factor (κH≈0.4) at peak temperature Tp is nearly field independent, leading to the observed Tp(H) relationship. Furthermore, the reentrant metallic behavior in ρxx(T) also is reflected in the behavior of ρxx(H) that ranges from nonsaturating at T > 70K to saturation at liquid-helium temperatures. The latter can be explained with the magnetic field dependence of the Hall factor κH(H). Lastly, our paper demonstrates that a semiclassical theory can account for the “anomalies” in the magnetotransport phenomena of NbP without invoking an exotic mechanism.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.96.115152},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 11,
volume = 96,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Fri Sep 15 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

Journal Article:

Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 4 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

Save / Share:

Works referenced in this record:

Pressure tuning the Fermi surface topology of the Weyl semimetal NbP
journal, May 2016


Signatures of Fermi Arcs in the Quasiparticle Interferences of the Weyl Semimetals TaAs and NbP
journal, February 2016


Manifestation of Topological Protection in Transport Properties of Epitaxial Bi 2 Se 3 Thin Films
journal, August 2012


Electron scattering in tantalum monoarsenide
journal, February 2017


Observation of the Chiral-Anomaly-Induced Negative Magnetoresistance in 3D Weyl Semimetal TaAs
journal, August 2015


Semimetal-semiconductor transition and giant linear magnetoresistances in three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Bi 0.96 Sb 0.04 single crystals
journal, September 2015

  • Yue, Z. J.; Wang, X. L.; Yan, S. S.
  • Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 11
  • DOI: 10.1063/1.4930882

Discovery of a Weyl fermion state with Fermi arcs in niobium arsenide
journal, August 2015

  • Xu, Su-Yang; Alidoust, Nasser; Belopolski, Ilya
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3437

Quasiparticle interference of the Fermi arcs and surface-bulk connectivity of a Weyl semimetal
journal, March 2016


Detecting monopole charge in Weyl semimetals via quantum interference transport
journal, April 2016


Temperature−field phase diagram of extreme magnetoresistance
journal, June 2016

  • Fallah Tafti, Fazel; Gibson, Quinn; Kushwaha, Satya
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 113, Issue 25
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1607319113

Origin of the extremely large magnetoresistance in the semimetal YSb
journal, August 2017


Spin Polarization and Texture of the Fermi Arcs in the Weyl Fermion Semimetal TaAs
journal, March 2016


Metal-insulator transition in graphite: A comparison to heterostructures with high carrier mobility
journal, January 2008


Large magnetoresistance over an extended temperature regime in monophosphides of tantalum and niobium
journal, July 2015


Signatures of the Adler–Bell–Jackiw chiral anomaly in a Weyl fermion semimetal
journal, February 2016

  • Zhang, Cheng-Long; Xu, Su-Yang; Belopolski, Ilya
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10735

Weyl Semimetal Phase in Noncentrosymmetric Transition-Metal Monophosphides
journal, March 2015


Discovery of a Weyl fermion semimetal and topological Fermi arcs
journal, July 2015


Extremely large magnetoresistance and ultrahigh mobility in the topological Weyl semimetal candidate NbP
journal, June 2015

  • Shekhar, Chandra; Nayak, Ajaya K.; Sun, Yan
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 8
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3372

Pressure-Induced New Topological Weyl Semimetal Phase in TaAs
journal, September 2016


The metal–insulator-like and insulator–metal-like behaviors in antimony
journal, May 2008


Weak antilocalization and linear magnetoresistance in the surface state of SmB 6
journal, November 2016


Electron-phonon interaction in disordered conductors: Static and vibrating scattering potentials
journal, March 2000


Electromagnetic response of interacting Weyl semimetals
journal, May 2016


Large nonsaturating magnetoresistance and signature of nondegenerate Dirac nodes in ZrSiS
journal, February 2017

  • Singha, Ratnadwip; Pariari, Arnab Kumar; Satpati, Biswarup
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 114, Issue 10
  • DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1618004114

Separation of electron and hole dynamics in the semimetal LaSb
journal, September 2017


Temperature-Dependent Three-Dimensional Anisotropy of the Magnetoresistance in WTe 2
journal, July 2015


Large magnetoresistance in LaBi: origin of field-induced resistivity upturn and plateau in compensated semimetals
journal, August 2016


Origin of the turn-on temperature behavior in WTe 2
journal, November 2015


Reentrant Metallic Behavior of Graphite in the Quantum Limit
journal, April 2003


Impurity Effect on Weak Antilocalization in the Topological Insulator Bi 2 Te 3
journal, April 2011


Anomalous electronic structure and magnetoresistance in TaAs2
journal, June 2016

  • Luo, Yongkang; McDonald, R. D.; Rosa, P. F. S.
  • Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/srep27294

Observation of Weyl nodes in TaAs
journal, August 2015

  • Lv, B. Q.; Xu, N.; Weng, H. M.
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3426

Disorder and Metal-Insulator Transitions in Weyl Semimetals
journal, December 2015


Mesoscopic superconductivity and high spin polarization coexisting at metallic point contacts on Weyl semimetal TaAs
journal, January 2017

  • Aggarwal, Leena; Gayen, Sirshendu; Das, Shekhar
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13974

Weak antilocalization and localization in disordered and interacting Weyl semimetals
journal, July 2015


Discovery of tip induced unconventional superconductivity on Weyl semimetal
journal, March 2017


Weyl semimetal phase in the non-centrosymmetric compound TaAs
journal, August 2015

  • Yang, L. X.; Liu, Z. K.; Sun, Y.
  • Nature Physics, Vol. 11, Issue 9
  • DOI: 10.1038/nphys3425

Competition between Weak Localization and Antilocalization in Topological Surface States
journal, August 2011


Observation of pseudo-two-dimensional electron transport in the rock salt-type topological semimetal LaBi
journal, June 2016


Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering
journal, May 2017

  • Bachmann, Maja D.; Nair, Nityan; Flicker, Felix
  • Science Advances, Vol. 3, Issue 5
  • DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602983

Universal magnetic-field-driven metal-insulator-metal transformations in graphite and bismuth
journal, April 2006


Commentary on "Graphite and its hidden superconductivity"
journal, March 2013


Negative magnetoresistance without well-defined chirality in the Weyl semimetal TaP
journal, May 2016

  • Arnold, Frank; Shekhar, Chandra; Wu, Shu-Chun
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11615

A Weyl Fermion semimetal with surface Fermi arcs in the transition metal monopnictide TaAs class
journal, June 2015

  • Huang, Shin-Ming; Xu, Su-Yang; Belopolski, Ilya
  • Nature Communications, Vol. 6, Issue 1
  • DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8373

Works referencing / citing this record:

Orbital-flop Induced Magnetoresistance Anisotropy in Rare Earth Monopnictide CeSb
journal, June 2019


Topological behavior and Zeeman splitting in trigonal PtBi2-x single crystals
journal, February 2020