Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe5

Tang, Fangdong; Ren, Yafei; Wang, Peipei; Zhong, Ruidan; Schneeloch, John; Yang, Shengyuan A.; Yang, Kun; Lee, Patrick A.; Gu, Genda; Qiao, Zhenhua; Zhang, Liyuan

doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1180-9

Title: Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe₅

Journal Article · Wed May 08 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nature (London)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1180-9· OSTI ID:1529075

Tang, Fangdong ^[1]; Ren, Yafei ^[2]; Wang, Peipei ^[1]; Zhong, Ruidan ^[3]; Schneeloch, John ^[3]; Yang, Shengyuan A. ^[4]; Yang, Kun ^[5]; Lee, Patrick A. ^[6];

^[3]; Qiao, Zhenhua ^[2]; Zhang, Liyuan ^[1]

Southern Univ. of Science and Technology, Shenzhen (China)
Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Hefei (China)
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Singapore Univ. of Technology and Design (Singapore)
Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

The discovery of the quantum Hall effect (QHE)1,2 in two-dimensional electronic systems has given topology a central role in condensed matter physics. Although the possibility of generalizing the QHE to three-dimensional (3D) electronic systems3,4 was proposed decades ago, it has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here we report the experimental realization of the 3D QHE in bulk zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe5) crystals. We perform low-temperature electric-transport measurements on bulk ZrTe5 crystals under a magnetic field and achieve the extreme quantum limit, where only the lowest Landau level is occupied, at relatively low magnetic fields. In this regime, we observe a dissipationless longitudinal resistivity close to zero, accompanied by a well-developed Hall resistivity plateau proportional to half of the Fermi wavelength along the field direction. This response is the signature of the 3D QHE and strongly suggests a Fermi surface instability driven by enhanced interaction effects in the extreme quantum limit. By further increasing the magnetic field, both the longitudinal and Hall resistivity increase considerably and display a metal–insulator transition, which represents another magnetic-field-driven quantum phase transition. Our findings provide experimental evidence of the 3D QHE and a promising platform for further exploration of exotic quantum phases and transitions in 3D systems.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0012704; FG02-03ER46076

OSTI ID:: 1529075

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1777867

Report Number(s):: BNL-211782-2019-JAAM

Journal Information:: Nature (London), Vol. 569, Issue 7757; ISSN 0028-0836

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 158 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (32)

Quantum Hall effect in a bulk crystal Hannahs, S. T.; Brooks, J. S.; Kang, W. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 63, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.63.1988	journal	October 1989
Two-Dimensional Magnetotransport in the Extreme Quantum Limit Tsui, D. C.; Stormer, H. L.; Gossard, A. C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 48, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1559	journal	May 1982
New Method for High-Accuracy Determination of the Fine-Structure Constant Based on Quantized Hall Resistance Klitzing, K. v.; Dorda, G.; Pepper, M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 45, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.45.494	journal	August 1980
Peierls instability in degenerate semiconductors under strong external magnetic fields Bardasis, A.; Das Sarma, S. Physical Review B, Vol. 29, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.29.780	journal	January 1984
Possible States for a Three-Dimensional Electron Gas in a Strong Magnetic Field Halperin, Bertrand I. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 26, Issue S3-3 https://doi.org/10.7567/JJAPS.26S3.1913	journal	January 1987
Bulk quantum Hall effect in $η - {Mo}_{4} O_{11}$ Hill, S.; Uji, S.; Takashita, M. Physical Review B, Vol. 58, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.58.10778	journal	October 1998
Quantized Hall effect and a new field-induced phase transition in the organic superconductor (TMTSF $)_{2}$ ${PF}_{6}$ Cooper, J. R.; Kang, W.; Auban, P. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 63, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.63.1984	journal	October 1989
Quantum Hall effect in a bulk antiferromagnet EuMnBi ₂ with magnetically confined two-dimensional Dirac fermions Masuda, Hidetoshi; Sakai, Hideaki; Tokunaga, Masashi Science Advances, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501117	journal	January 2016
Transport evidence for the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal phase in $ZrT e_{5}$ Zheng, Guolin; Lu, Jianwei; Zhu, Xiangde Physical Review B, Vol. 93, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.115414	journal	March 2016
Zeeman splitting and dynamical mass generation in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5 Liu, Yanwen; Yuan, Xiang; Zhang, Cheng Nature Communications, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12516	journal	August 2016
Thermoelectric power of HfTe5 and ZrTe5 Jones, T. E.; Fuller, W. W.; Wieting, T. J. Solid State Communications, Vol. 42, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-1098(82)90008-4	journal	June 1982
Theory of the Three-Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in Graphite Bernevig, B. Andrei; Hughes, Taylor L.; Raghu, Srinivas Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.146804	journal	October 2007
Transport of a sliding Wigner crystal in the four flux composite fermion regime Zhang, Chi; Du, Rui-Rui; Manfra, M. J. Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.075434	journal	August 2015
Anomalous Hall effect in ZrTe5 Liang, Tian; Lin, Jingjing; Gibson, Quinn Nature Physics, Vol. 14, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-018-0078-z	journal	March 2018
Electric Field Breakdown of Charge-Density-Wave—Induced Anomalies in Nb ${Se}_{3}$ Monçeau, P.; Ong, N. P.; Portis, A. M. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 37, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.37.602	journal	September 1976
Charge-density waves and superlattices in the metallic layered transition metal dichalcogenides Wilson, J. A.; Di Salvo, F. J.; Mahajan, S. Advances in Physics, Vol. 24, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/00018737500101391	journal	March 1975
Theory of discommensurations and the commensurate-incommensurate charge-density-wave phase transition McMillan, W. L. Physical Review B, Vol. 14, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.14.1496	journal	August 1976
Observation of a Magnetically Induced Wigner Solid Andrei, E. Y.; Deville, G.; Glattli, D. C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 60, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.2765	journal	June 1988
Magnetic-field-induced localization in narrow-gap semiconductors ${Hg}_{1 - x}$ ${Cd}_{x}$ Te and InSb Shayegan, M.; Goldman, V. J.; Drew, H. D. Physical Review B, Vol. 38, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.38.5585	journal	September 1988
Quantization of the Hall effect in an anisotropic three-dimensional electronic system Störmer, H. L.; Eisenstein, J. P.; Gossard, A. C. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 56, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.85	journal	January 1986
Magnetoinfrared Spectroscopy of Landau Levels and Zeeman Splitting of Three-Dimensional Massless Dirac Fermions in ${ZrTe}_{5}$ Chen, R. Y.; Chen, Z. G.; Song, X. -Y. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 115, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.176404	journal	October 2015
Diophantine equation for the three-dimensional quantum Hall effect Kohmoto, Mahito; Halperin, Bertrand I.; Wu, Yong-Shi Physical Review B, Vol. 45, Issue 23 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.45.13488	journal	June 1992
Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5 Li, Qiang; Kharzeev, Dmitri E.; Zhang, Cheng Nature Physics, Vol. 12, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3648	journal	February 2016
Quantized Hall Effect and Shubnikov–de Haas Oscillations in Highly Doped ${Bi}_{2} {Se}_{3}$ : Evidence for Layered Transport of Bulk Carriers Cao, Helin; Tian, Jifa; Miotkowski, Ireneusz Physical Review Letters, Vol. 108, Issue 21 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.216803	journal	May 2012
Strong-magnetic-field states of the pure electron plasma MacDonald, A. H.; Bryant, Garnett W. Physical Review Letters, Vol. 58, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.58.515	journal	February 1987
Electronic evidence of temperature-induced Lifshitz transition and topological nature in ZrTe5 Zhang, Yan; Wang, Chenlu; Yu, Li Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15512	journal	May 2017
Wigner crystals in the lowest Landau level at low-filling factors Yang, Kun; Haldane, F. D. M.; Rezayi, E. H. Physical Review B, Vol. 64, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.64.081301	journal	August 2001
Electron correlation and disorder in ${Hg}_{1 - x}$ ${Cd}_{x}$ Te in a magnetic field Field, Stuart B.; Reich, D. H.; Rosenbaum, T. F. Physical Review B, Vol. 38, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.38.1856	journal	July 1988
Electric field depinning of charge density waves Lee, P. A.; Rice, T. M. Physical Review B, Vol. 19, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.19.3970	journal	April 1979
Charge-density waves and superlattices in the metallic layered transition metal dichalcogenides Wilson, J. A.; Di Salvo, F. J.; Mahajan, S. Advances in Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1080/00018730110102718	journal	December 2001
Quantum Hall effect in a bulk antiferromagnet EuMnBi$_2$ with magnetically confined two-dimensional Dirac fermions Masuda, H.; Sakai, H.; Tokunaga, M. arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1703.04127	text	January 2017
Theory of the Three Dimensional Quantum Hall Effect in Graphite Bernevig, B. Andrei; Hughes, Taylor L.; Raghu, Srinivas arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0701436	text	January 2007

Cited By (7)

Thermal Conductivity of HfTe ₅ : A Critical Revisit Feng, Tianli; Wu, Xuewang; Yang, Xiaolong Advanced Functional Materials, Vol. 30, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.201907286	journal	November 2019
Signatures of Sixfold Degenerate Exotic Fermions in a Superconducting Metal PdSb ₂ Kumar, Nitesh; Yao, Mengyu; Nayak, Jayita Advanced Materials, Vol. 32, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201906046	journal	February 2020
Fast and controlled growth of two-dimensional layered ZrTe ₃ nanoribbons by chemical vapor deposition Yu, Xu; Wen, Xiaokun; Zhang, Wenfeng CrystEngComm, Vol. 21, Issue 37 https://doi.org/10.1039/c9ce00793h	journal	January 2019
Anisotropic Landau level splitting and Lifshitz transition induced magnetoresistance enhancement in ZrTe ₅ crystals Zhou, L.; Ramiere, A.; Chen, P. B. New Journal of Physics, Vol. 21, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab3dbb	journal	September 2019
Ground-state atlas of a three-dimensional semimetal in the quantum limit Pan, Zhiming; Shindou, Ryuichi Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 16 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.165124	journal	October 2019
Hot carrier dynamics and phonon anharmonicity of ${ZrTe}_{5}$ revealed with femtosecond transient optical spectroscopy Li, Ning; Liang, Weizheng; Luo, Sheng-Nian Physical Review B, Vol. 101, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.101.014304	journal	January 2020
Ground-state atlas of a three-dimensional semimetal in the quantum limit Pan, Zhiming; Shindou, Ryuichi arXiv https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1907.09153	text	January 2019

Similar Records

Origin of the quasi-quantized Hall effect in ZrTe₅

Journal Article · Thu May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1529075

Galeski, S.; Ehmcke, T.; Wawrzyńczak, R.; +24 more

Spin-valley locking and bulk quantum Hall effect in a noncentrosymmetric Dirac semimetal BaMnSb₂

Journal Article · Thu Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1529075

Liu, Jinyu; Yu, J.; Ning, Jing L.; +26 more

Metal-to-insulator switching in quantum anomalous Hall states

Journal Article · Wed Oct 07 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1529075

Kou, Xufeng; Pan, Lei; Wang, Jing; +8 more

Related Subjects

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Title: Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe5

Citation Formats

References (32)

Cited By (7)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

Title: Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe₅