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Title: Bulk Fermi surface of the Weyl type-II semimetallic candidate γ - MoTe 2

Journal Article · · Physical Review B
 [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab); Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab)
  3. Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden (Germany). Dresden High Magnetic Field Lab. (HLD-EMFL)
  4. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab); Univ. of Tokyo (Japan). Inst. of Solid State Physics
  5. Univ. of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  6. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry, Columbia Nano Initiative
  7. Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States). Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS)

The electronic structure of semi-metallic transition-metal dichalcogenides, such as WTe$$_2$$ and orthorhombic $$\gamma-$$MoTe$$_2$$, are claimed to contain pairs of Weyl points or linearly touching electron and hole pockets associated with a non-trivial Chern number. For this reason, these compounds were recently claimed to conform to a new class, deemed type-II, of Weyl semi-metallic systems. A series of angle resolved photoemission experiments (ARPES) claim a broad agreement with these predictions detecting, for example, topological Fermi arcs at the surface of these crystals. We synthesized single-crystals of semi-metallic MoTe$$_2$$ through a Te flux method to validate these predictions through measurements of its bulk Fermi surface (FS) via quantum oscillatory phenomena. We find that the superconducting transition temperature of $$\gamma-$$MoTe$$_2$$ depends on disorder as quantified by the ratio between the room- and low-temperature resistivities, suggesting the possibility of an unconventional superconducting pairing symmetry. Similarly to WTe$$_2$$, the magnetoresistivity of $$\gamma-$$MoTe$$_2$$ does not saturate at high magnetic fields and can easily surpass $$10^{6}$$ \%. Remarkably, the analysis of the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) signal superimposed onto the magnetic torque, indicates that the geometry of its FS is markedly distinct from the calculated one. The dHvA signal also reveals that the FS is affected by the Zeeman-effect precluding the extraction of the Berry-phase. A direct comparison between the previous ARPES studies and density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations reveals a disagreement in the position of the valence bands relative to the Fermi level $$\varepsilon_F$$. Here in this paper, we show that a shift of the DFT valence bands relative to $$\varepsilon_F$$, in order to match the ARPES observations, and of the DFT electron bands to explain some of the observed dHvA frequencies, leads to a good agreement between the calculations and the angular dependence of the FS cross-sectional areas observed experimentally. However, this relative displacement between electron- and hole-bands eliminates their crossings and, therefore, the Weyl type-II points predicted for $$\gamma-$$MoTe$$_2$$

Research Organization:
National High Magnetic Field Lab - Florida State University
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0002613; DMR-1360863; W911NF-11-1-0362; DMR-1332208; DMR-1157490
OSTI ID:
1399695
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1399806
Journal Information:
Physical Review B, Vol. 96, Issue 16; Related Information: https://journals.aps.org/prb/supplemental/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.165134; ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 62 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (16)

Origin of extremely large magnetoresistance in the candidate type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2−x journal September 2018
Mobility spectrum analytical approach for the type-II Weyl semimetal T d -MoTe 2 journal February 2018
Magneto-resistance in pristine and irradiated TaAs 2 journal April 2019
Surface superconductivity in the Weyl semimetal MoTe 2 detected by point contact spectroscopy journal August 2018
Experimental progress on layered topological semimetals journal April 2019
Numerically exact study of Weyl superconductivity journal September 2019
Detailed study of the Fermi surfaces of the type-II Dirac semimetallic candidates X Te 2 ( X =Pd, Pt) journal June 2018
Origin of magnetoresistance suppression in thin γ MoT e 2 journal June 2018
Temperature-induced inversion of the spin-photogalvanic effect in WTe 2 and MoTe 2 journal September 2018
Phase transition and electronic structure evolution of MoTe 2 induced by W substitution journal October 2018
Bulk Fermi surface of the Weyl type-II semimetallic candidate NbIrTe 4 journal May 2019
Spin-Resolved Electronic Response to the Phase Transition in MoTe 2 journal October 2018
Classical Limit for Dirac Fermions with Modified Action in the Presence of a Black Hole journal October 2019
Low-energy excitations in type-II Weyl semimetal Td−MoTe2 evidenced through optical conductivity text January 2020
Surface superconductivity in the Weyl semimetal MoTe2 detected by point contact spectroscopy text January 2018
Experimental Progress on Layered Topological Semimetals text January 2019