Large magnetoresistance and weak-antilocalization in the nodal-line semimetal VP2

Abstract

After growing successfully high quality VP$_2$ single crystals, we studied systematically their longitudinal $\rho_{xx}(T)$ and Hall resistivity $\rho_{yx}(T)$ at various magnetic fields, combining the electronic band and Fermi surface (FS) calculations. Band calculations reveal that VP$_2$ is a type-II nodal-line semimetal, evidenced by the Hall resistivity measurements. It is found that the magnetoresistance (MR) at higher magnetic fields exhibits a linear behavior and does not show any sign of saturation, reaching 170\% at 40 K up to 9 T, which is determined by the intrinsic electronic structure and dominated by the Lorenz force, demonstrated by the resistivity anisotropy measurements and the numerical simulations. We also found that the existence of small amount magnetic impurities (V$^{4+}$, $S=1/2$, 2.24\%) results in Kondo effect emerging in $\rho_{xx}(T)$, the conductivity at lower magnetic fields exhibits a typical weak anti-localization (WAL) behavior. These results illustrate that VP$_2$ is a platform to study the electronic transport properties of a topological material containing magnetic impurities.