Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in gallium arsenide quantum wells

Xu, Jing; Ma, Meng K.; Sultanov, Maksim; Xiao, Zhi-Li; Wang, Yong-Lei; Jin, Dafei; Lyu, Yang-Yang; Zhang, Wei; Pfeiffer, Loren N.; West, Ken W.; Baldwin, Kirk W.; Shayegan, Mansour; Kwok, Wai-Kwong

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-08199-2

Title: Negative longitudinal magnetoresistance in gallium arsenide quantum wells

Journal Article · 17 January 2019 · Nature Communications

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-08199-2 · OSTI ID:1493719

Xu, Jing ^[1]; Ma, Meng K. ^[2]; Sultanov, Maksim ^[3];

^[1]; Wang, Yong-Lei ^[4]; Jin, Dafei ^[5]; Lyu, Yang-Yang ^[4]; Zhang, Wei ^[6]; Pfeiffer, Loren N. ^[2]; West, Ken W. ^[2]; Baldwin, Kirk W. ^[2]; Shayegan, Mansour ^[2]; Kwok, Wai-Kwong ^[5]

Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States)
Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Nanjing Univ. (China)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Oakland Univ., Rochester, MI (United States)

Negative longitudinal magnetoresistances (NLMRs) have been recently observed in a variety of topological materials and often considered to be associated with Weyl fermions that have a defined chirality. Here we report NLMRs in non-Weyl GaAs quantum wells. In the absence of a magnetic field the quantum wells show a transition from semiconducting-like to metallic behaviour with decreasing temperature. We observe pronounced NLMRs up to 9 Tesla at temperatures above the transition and weak NLMRs in low magnetic fields at temperatures close to the transition and below 5 K. The observed NLMRs show various types of magnetic field behaviour resembling those reported in topological materials. We attribute them to microscopic disorder and use a phenomenological three-resistor model to account for their various features. Our results showcase a contribution of microscopic disorder in the occurrence of unusual phenomena. They may stimulate further work on tuning electronic properties via disorder/defect nano-engineering.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Fulbright Program; National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357; FG02-00ER45841

OSTI ID:: 1493719

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 17 works

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