Chiral anomaly induced negative magnetoresistance in topological Weyl semimetal NbAs

Abstract

In this paper, we report the intercone transport of Weyl fermions in NbAs with external magnetic field in parallel to electric field, a quantum phenomenon known as the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly. Surprisingly, the resulting negative magnetoresistance (MR) in NbAs shows significant difference from NbP. The observed low-field positive MR dip, which is missing in NbP at low temperatures, indicates that the spin-orbital coupling (SOC) is significantly stronger in NbAs than in the former. The results imply that the contribution of arsenic to SOC in TaAs and NbAs is not negligible.