The chiral anomaly and thermopower of Weyl fermions in the half-Heusler GdPtBi
Source abstract
Abstract
The Dirac and Weyl semimetals are unusual materials in which the nodes of the bulk states are protected against gap formation by crystalline symmetry. The chiral anomaly, predicted to occur in both systems, was recently observed as a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) in Na3Bi (ref. ) and in TaAs (ref. ). An important issue is whether Weyl physics appears in a broader class of materials. We report evidence for the chiral anomaly in the half-Heusler GdPtBi. In zero field, GdPtBi is a zero-gap semiconductor with quadratic bands. In a magnetic field, the Zeeman energy leads to Weyl nodes. We have observed a large negative LMR with the field-steering properties specific to the chiral anomaly. The chiral anomaly also induces strong suppression of the thermopower. We report a detailed study of the thermoelectric response function αxx of Weyl fermions. The scheme of creating Weyl nodes from quadratic bands suggests that the chiral anomaly may be observable in a broad class of semimetals.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗
Research context
OpenAlex topics: Topological Materials and Phenomena · Heusler alloys: electronic and magnetic properties · Advanced Thermoelectric Materials and Devices
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
References (33)
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