Temperature-field phase diagram of extreme magnetoresistance

Fazel Fallah Tafti, Quinn Gibson, Satya Kushwaha, Jason W. Krizan, Neel Haldolaarachchige, Robert Joseph Cava

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

88 Scopus citations

Abstract

The recent discovery of extreme magnetoresistance (XMR) in LaSb introduced lanthanum monopnictides as a new platform to study this effect in the absence of broken inversion symmetry or protected linear band crossing. In this work, we report XMR in LaBi. Through a comparative study of magnetotransport effects in LaBi and LaSb, we construct a temperature-field phase diagram with triangular shape that illustrates how a magnetic field tunes the electronic behavior in these materials. We show that the triangular phase diagram can be generalized to other topological semimetals with different crystal structures and different chemical compositions. By comparing our experimental results to band structure calculations, we suggest that XMR in LaBi and LaSb originates from a combination of compensated electron-hole pockets and a particular orbital texture on the electron pocket. Such orbital texture is likely to be a generic feature of various topological semimetals, giving rise to their small residual resistivity at zero field and subject to strong scattering induced by a magnetic field.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)E3475-E3481
JournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume113
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 21 2016

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

Keywords

  • Extreme magnetoresistance
  • Orbital texture
  • Topological semimetal

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