journal article·2019-05

Ultrahigh conductivity in Weyl semimetal NbAs nanobelts

Cheng Zhang, Zhuoliang Ni, Jinglei Zhang, Xiang Yuan, Yanwen Liu, Yichao Zou, Zhiming Liao, Yongping Du, Awadhesh Narayan, Hongming Zhang, Tiancheng Gu, Xuesong Zhu, Li Pi, Stefano Sanvito, Xiaodong Han, Jin Zou, Yi Shi, Xiangang Wan, Sergey Y. Savrasov, Faxian Xiu

Nature Materials· Volume 18· Issue 5
Publisher page

Abstract

In two-dimensional (2D) systems, high mobility is typically achieved in low-carrier-density semiconductors and semimetals. Here, we discover that the nanobelts of Weyl semimetal NbAs maintain a high mobility even in the presence of a high sheet carrier density. We develop a growth scheme to synthesize single crystalline NbAs nanobelts with tunable Fermi levels. Owing to a large surface-to-bulk ratio, we argue that a 2D surface state gives rise to the high sheet carrier density, even though the bulk Fermi level is located near the Weyl nodes. A surface sheet conductance up to 5-100 S per □ is realized, exceeding that of conventional 2D electron gases, quasi-2D metal films, and topological insulator surface states. Corroborated by theory, we attribute the origin of the ultrahigh conductance to the disorder-tolerant Fermi arcs. The evidenced low-dissipation property of Fermi arcs has implications for both fundamental study and potential electronic applications.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Topological Materials and Phenomena · Graphene research and applications · Quantum and electron transport phenomena

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (55)

Show source-provided references
1. Ando, T., Fowler, A. B. & Stern, F. Electronic properties of two-dimensional systems. Rev. Mod. Phys. 54, 437–672 (1982).10.1103/RevModPhys.54.437 ↗
2. Das Sarma, S., Adam, S., Hwang, E. H. & Rossi, E. Electronic transport in two-dimensional graphene. Rev. Mod. Phys. 83, 407–470 (2011).10.1103/RevModPhys.83.407 ↗
3. Beenakker, C. & van Houten, H. Quantum transport in semiconductor nanostructures. Solid State Phys. 44, 1–228 (1991).10.1016/S0081-1947(08)60091-0 ↗
4. Ye, J. T. et al. Liquid-gated interface superconductivity on an atomically flat film. Nat. Mater. 9, 125–128 (2009).10.1038/nmat2587 ↗
5. Wan, X., Turner, A. M., Vishwanath, A. & Savrasov, S. Y. Topological semimetal and Fermi-arc surface states in the electronic structure of pyrochlore iridates. Phys. Rev. B 83, 205101 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevB.83.205101 ↗
6. Weng, H., Fang, C., Fang, Z., Bernevig, B. A. & Dai, X. Weyl semimetal phase in noncentrosymmetric transition-metal monophosphides. Phys. Rev. X 5, 011029 (2015).
7. Lv, B. Q. et al. Experimental discovery of Weyl semimetal TaAs. Phys. Rev. X 5, 031013 (2015).
8. Xu, S.-Y. et al. Discovery of a Weyl fermion semimetal and topological Fermi arcs. Science 349, 613–617 (2015).10.1126/science.aaa9297 ↗
9. Armitage, N. P., Mele, E. J. & Vishwanath, A. Weyl and Dirac semimetals in three-dimensional solids. Rev. Mod. Phys. 90, 015001 (2018).10.1103/RevModPhys.90.015001 ↗
10. Zhang, C., Lu, H.-Z., Shen, S.-Q., Chen, Y. P. & Xiu, F. Towards the manipulation of topological states of matter: a perspective from electron transport. Sci. Bull. 63, 580–594 (2018).10.1016/j.scib.2018.04.007 ↗
11. Xiong, J. et al. Evidence for the chiral anomaly in the Dirac semimetal Na3Bi. Science 350, 413–416 (2015).10.1126/science.aac6089 ↗
12. Li, Q. et al. Chiral magnetic effect in ZrTe5. Nat. Phys. 12, 550–554 (2016).10.1038/nphys3648 ↗
13. Zhang, C. et al. Room-temperature chiral charge pumping in Dirac semimetals. Nat. Commun. 8, 13741 (2017).10.1038/ncomms13741 ↗
14. Zhang, C. L. et al. Signatures of the Adler-Bell-Jackiw chiral anomaly in a Weyl fermion semimetal. Nat. Commun. 7, 10735 (2016).10.1038/ncomms10735 ↗
15. Moll, P. J. W. et al. Transport evidence for Fermi-arc-mediated chirality transfer in the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2. Nature 535, 266–270 (2016).10.1038/nature18276 ↗
16. Zhang, C. et al. Evolution of Weyl orbit and quantum Hall effect in Dirac semimetal Cd3As2. Nat. Commun. 8, 1272 (2017).10.1038/s41467-017-01438-y ↗
17. Liang, T. et al. Anomalous Hall effect in ZrTe5. Nat. Phys. 14, 451–455 (2018).10.1038/s41567-018-0078-z ↗
18. Kurebayashi, D. & Nomura, K. Voltage-driven magnetization switching and spin pumping in Weyl semimetals. Phys. Rev. Appl. 6, 044013 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.044013 ↗
19. Jiang, Q.-D., Jiang, H., Liu, H., Sun, Q.-F. & Xie, X. C. Topological Imbert-Fedorov shift in Weyl semimetals. Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 156602 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.156602 ↗
20. Gorbar, E. V., Miransky, V. A., Shovkovy, I. A. & Sukhachov, P. O. Origin of dissipative Fermi arc transport in Weyl semimetals. Phys. Rev. B 93, 235127 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevB.93.235127 ↗
21. Resta, G., Pi, S.-T., Wan, X. & Savrasov, S. Y. High surface conductivity of Fermi-arc electrons in Weyl semimetals. Phys. Rev. B 97, 085142 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevB.97.085142 ↗
22. Bachmann, M. D. et al. Inducing superconductivity in Weyl semimetal microstructures by selective ion sputtering. Sci. Adv. 3, e1602983 (2017).10.1126/sciadv.1602983 ↗
23. Ali, M. N. et al. Large, non-saturating magnetoresistance in WTe2. Nature 514, 205–208 (2014).10.1038/nature13763 ↗
24. Matula, R. A. Electrical resistivity of copper, gold, palladium, and silver. J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 8, 1147–1298 (1979).10.1063/1.555614 ↗
25. Xu, S.-Y. et al. Discovery of a Weyl fermion state with Fermi arcs in niobium arsenide. Nat. Phys. 11, 748–754 (2015).10.1038/nphys3437 ↗
26. Zhang, C.-L. et al. Electron scattering in tantalum monoarsenide. Phys. Rev. B 95, 085202 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevB.95.085202 ↗
27. Ghimire, N. J. et al. Magnetotransport of single crystalline NbAs. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 27, 152201 (2015).10.1088/0953-8984/27/15/152201 ↗
28. Shekhar, C. et al. Extremely large magnetoresistance and ultrahigh mobility in the topological Weyl semimetal candidate NbP. Nat. Phys. 11, 645–649 (2015).10.1038/nphys3372 ↗
29. Luo, Y. et al. Electron-hole compensation effect between topologically trivial electrons and nontrivial holes in NbAs. Phys. Rev. B 92, 205134 (2015).10.1103/PhysRevB.92.205134 ↗
30. Moll, P. J. W. et al. Magnetic torque anomaly in the quantum limit of Weyl semimetals. Nat. Commun. 7, 12492 (2016).10.1038/ncomms12492 ↗
31. Xiu, F. et al. Manipulating surface states in topological insulator nanoribbons. Nat. Nanotechnol. 6, 216–221 (2011).10.1038/nnano.2011.19 ↗
32. Caviglia, A. D. et al. Two-dimensional quantum oscillations of the conductance at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 236802 (2010).10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.236802 ↗
33. Matsubara, Y. et al. Observation of the quantum Hall effect in δ-doped SrTiO3. Nat. Commun. 7, 11631 (2016).10.1038/ncomms11631 ↗
34. Ziman, J. M. Electrons and Phonons: The Theory of Transport Phenomena in Solids (Oxford Univ. Press, 1960).
35. Schumann, T. et al. Observation of the quantum Hall effect in confined films of the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal Cd3As2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 016801 (2018).10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.016801 ↗
36. Liang, T. et al. Ultrahigh mobility and giant magnetoresistance in the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2. Nat. Mater. 14, 280–284 (2015).10.1038/nmat4143 ↗
37. Du, X., Tsai, S.-W., Maslov, D. L. & Hebard, A. F. Metal-insulator-like behavior in semimetallic bismuth and graphite. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 166601 (2005).10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.166601 ↗
38. Yang, F. Y. et al. Large magnetoresistance of electrodeposited single-crystal bismuth thin films. Science 284, 1335–1337 (1999).10.1126/science.284.5418.1335 ↗
39. Fatemi, V. et al. Magnetoresistance and quantum oscillations of an electrostatically tuned semimetal-to-metal transition in ultrathin WTe2. Phys. Rev. B 95, 041410 (2017).10.1103/PhysRevB.95.041410 ↗
40. Zhang, Y., Tan, Y. W., Stormer, H. L. & Kim, P. Experimental observation of the quantum Hall effect and Berry’s phase in graphene. Nature 438, 201–204 (2005).10.1038/nature04235 ↗
41. Xi, X., Berger, H., Forró, L., Shan, J. & Mak, K. F. Gate tuning of electronic phase transitions in two-dimensional NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 106801 (2016).10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.106801 ↗
42. Qu, D.-X., Hor, Y. S., Xiong, J., Cava, R. J. & Ong, N. P. Quantum oscillations and Hall anomaly of surface states in the topological insulator Bi2Te3. Science 329, 821–824 (2010).10.1126/science.1189792 ↗
43. Li, L. J. et al. Controlling many-body states by the electric-field effect in a two-dimensional material. Nature 529, 185–189 (2015).10.1038/nature16175 ↗
44. Kane, B. E., Pfeiffer, L. N., West, K. W. & Harnett, C. K. Variable density high mobility two‐dimensional electron and hole gases in a gated GaAs/AlxGa1−xAs heterostructure. Appl. Phys. Lett. 63, 2132–2134 (1993).10.1063/1.110563 ↗
45. Tsui, D. C., Stormer, H. L. & Gossard, A. C. Two-dimensional magnetotransport in the extreme quantum limit. Phys. Rev. Lett. 48, 1559–1562 (1982).10.1103/PhysRevLett.48.1559 ↗
46. Joseph, F. & Masashi, K. A review of the quantum Hall effects in MgZnO/ZnO heterostructures. Rep. Prog. Phys. 81, 056501 (2018).10.1088/1361-6633/aaa978 ↗
47. Lu, M. et al. Low-temperature electrical-transport properties of single-crystal bismuth films under pressure. Phys. Rev. B 53, 1609–1615 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevB.53.1609 ↗
48. Van den dries, L., Van Haesendonck, C., Bruynseraede, Y. & Deutscher, G. Two-dimensional localization in thin copper films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 565–568 (1981).10.1103/PhysRevLett.46.565 ↗
49. Markiewicz, R. S. & Harris, L. A. Two-dimensional resistivity of ultrathin metal films. Phys. Rev. Lett. 46, 1149–1153 (1981).10.1103/PhysRevLett.46.1149 ↗
50. Umansky, V. et al. MBE growth of ultra-low disorder 2DEG with mobility exceeding 35×106 cm2/Vs. J. Cryst. Growth 311, 1658–1661 (2009).10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2008.09.151 ↗
51. Blackman, C. et al. Chemical vapour deposition of group Vb metal phosphide thin films. J. Mater. Chem. 13, 1930–1935 (2003).10.1039/b304084b ↗
52. Arnold, F. et al. Negative magnetoresistance without well-defined chirality in the Weyl semimetal TaP. Nat. Commun. 7, 11615 (2016).10.1038/ncomms11615 ↗
53. Liang, S. et al. Experimental tests of the chiral anomaly magnetoresistance in the Dirac-Weyl semimetals Na3Bi and GdPtBi. Phys. Rev. X 8, 031002 (2018).
54. Moll, P. J. W., Kushwaha, P., Nandi, N., Schmidt, B. & Mackenzie, A. P. Evidence for hydrodynamic electron flow in PdCoO2. Science 351, 1061–1064 (2016).10.1126/science.aac8385 ↗
55. Mackenzie, A. P. The properties of ultrapure delafossite metals. Rep. Prog. Phys. 80, 032501 (2017).10.1088/1361-6633/aa50e5 ↗