Mobility induced unsaturated high linear magnetoresistance in transition-metal monopnictides Weyl semimetals

Abstract

Discovery of Weyl fermions in semimetallic tansition-metal monopnictides is a major breakthrough in condensed matter physics. A Weyl semimetal is characterized by the existence of robust Weyl points and unclosed topological surface states in the form of Fermi arc. All the four compounds of the Weyl semimetal transition monopnictide family i.e. NbP, TaP, NbAs and TaAs exhibit extremely high mobility and unsaturated high magnetoresistance (MR). For example, MR values are 8.5x10^5% at 1.85 K for NbP and 1.5x10^5% at 3 K in 9 T for TaAs. NbP also achieves very low value of residual resistivity 0.63 micro-ohm cm at 2 K due to suppression of scattering resulting in ultra-high mobility 5x10^6 cm^2/Vs, Interestingly, we find that the mobility of these compounds play an important role for such a large MR.