Chiral magnetoresistance in the Weyl semimetal NbP

Abstract

NbP is a recently realized Weyl semimetal (WSM), hosting Weyl points through which conduction and valence bands cross linearly in the bulk and exotic Fermi arcs appear. However, the most intriguing transport phenomenon of a WSM, the chiral anomaly-induced negative magnetoresistance (NMR) in parallel electric and magnetic fields, has yet to be observed in NbP. In intrinsic NbP the Weyl points lie far from the Fermi energy, making chiral magneto-transport elusive. Here, we use Ga-doping to relocate the Fermi energy in NbP sufficiently close to the Weyl points, for which the different Fermi surfaces are verified by resultant quantum oscillations. Consequently, we observe a NMR for parallel electric and magnetic fields, which is considered as a signature of the chiral anomaly in condensed-matter physics. The NMR survives up to room temperature, making NbP a versatile material platform for the development of Weyltronic applications.