Nontrivial topology of bulk HgSe from the study of cyclotron effective mass, electron mobility and phase shift of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations

Abstract

In this paper, the authors report the results of an experimental study of effective mass, electron mobility and phase shift of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations of transverse magnetoresistance in an extended electron concentration region from 8.8*10^15 cm^-3 to 4.3*10^18 cm^-3 in single crystals of mercury selenide. The revealed features confirm the existence of a Weyl semimetal phase in HgSe at low electron density, which has been indicated by previous magnetotransport studies. However, the most significant result is the discovery of an abrupt change of Berry phase of Pi at electron concentration 2*10^18 cm^-3, which we explain in terms of a manifestation of topological Lifshitz transition in HgSe that occurs by tuning Fermi energy via doping.