No Arabic abstract
A study of the Fermi surface of the putative topological semimetal Pd$_3$Pb has been carried out using Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations measured in fields of up to 60 T. Pd$_3$Pb has garnered attention in the community due to a peculiar Fermi surface that has been proposed theoretically by Ahn, Pickett, and Lee, [Phys. Rev. B 98, 035130 (2018)] to host a dispersion-less band along $X-Gamma$ as well as multiple triply-degenerate band crossings that, under the influence of spin-orbit coupling, lead to ten four-fold degenerate Dirac points. Analysis of the SdH oscillation data verifies the calculated multi-sheet Fermi surface, revealing a $Gamma$ centered spheroid that had not been resolved experimentally in prior studies. A comprehensive, angle-dependent analysis of the phase of the SdH oscillations convincingly demonstrates a non-trivial Berry phase for two bands along $Gamma-R$, supporting the theoretical predictions, while simultaneously evidencing interference between extremal orbits that mimics a trivial Berry phase at intermediate angles.
Realization of semimetals with non-trivial topologies such as Dirac and Weyl semimetals, have provided a boost in the study of these quantum materials. Presence of electron correlation makes the system even more exotic due to enhanced scattering of charge carriers, Kondo screening etc. Here, we studied the electronic properties of single crystalline, SmBi employing varied state of the art bulk measurements. Magnetization data reveals two magnetic transitions; an antiferromagnetic order with a Neel temperature of ~ 9 K and a second magnetic transition at a lower temperature (= 7 K). The electrical resistivity data shows an upturn typical of a Kondo system and the estimated Kondo temperature is found to be close to the Neel temperature. High quality of the crystal enabled us to discover signature of quantum oscillation in the magnetization data even at low magnetic field. Using a Landau level fan diagram analysis, a non-trivial Berry phase is identified for a Fermi pocket revealing the topological character in this material. These results demonstrate an unique example of the Fermiology in the antiferromagnetic state and opens up a new paradigm to explore the Dirac fermion physics in correlated topological metal via interplay of Kondo interaction, topological order and magnetism.
We report the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in bulk single crystals of monoclinic SrIrO$_3$ in magnetic fields up to 35 T. Analysis of the oscillations reveals a Fermi surface comprising multiple small pockets with effective masses up to five times larger than the calculated band mass. Phase analysis of the oscillations indicates non-trivial topological character of the dominant orbit while ab-initio calculations reveal robust linear band-crossings at the Brillouin zone boundary. These collective findings, coupled with knowledge of the evolution of the electronic state across the Ruddlesden-Popper iridate series, establishes monoclinic SrIrO$_3$ as a topological semimetal on the boundary of the Mott metal-insulator transition.
We report a detailed magnetotransport study on single crystals of PrBi. The presence of $f$-electrons in this material raises the prospect of realizing a strongly correlated version of topological semimetals. PrBi shows a magnetic field induced metal insulator transition below $T sim 20$ K and a very large magnetoresistance ($approx 4.4 times 10^4~$) at low temperatures ($T= 2$ K). We have also probed the Fermi surface topology by de Haas van Alphen (dHvA) and Shubnikov de Haas (SdH) quantum oscillation measurements complimented with density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the band structure and the Fermi surface. Angle dependence of the SdH oscillations have been carried out to probe the possible signature of surface Dirac fermions. We find three frequencies corresponding to one electron ($alpha$) and two hole ($beta$ and $gamma$) pockets in experiments, consistent with DFT calculations. The angular dependence of these frequencies is not consistent with a two dimensional Fermi surface suggesting that the transport is dominated by bulk bands. Although the transport properties of this material originate from the bulk bands, the high mobility and small effective mass are comparable to other compounds in this series proposed as topologically nontrivial.
Nodal semimetals are a unique platform to explore topological signatures of the unusual band structure that can manifest by accumulating a nontrivial phase in quantum oscillations. Here we report a study of the de Haasvan Alphen oscillations of the candidate topological nodal line semimetal CaAgAs using torque measurements in magnetic fields up to 45 T. Our results are compared with calculations for a toroidal Fermi surface originating from the nodal ring. We find evidence of a nontrivial Berry phase shift only in one of the oscillatory frequencies. We interpret this as a Berry phase arising from the semi-classical electronic Landau orbit which links with the nodal ring when the magnetic field lies in the mirror (ab) plane. Furthermore, additional Berry phase accumulates while rotating the magnetic field for the second orbit in the same orientation which does not link with the nodal ring. These effects are expected in CaAgAs due to the lack of inversion symmetry. Our study experimentally demonstrates that CaAgAs is an ideal platform for exploring the physics of nodal line semimetals and our approach can be extended to other materials in which trivial and nontrivial oscillations are present.
We performed angle dependent magnetoresistance study of a metallic single crystal sample of Bi2Te3. We find that the magnetoresistance is highly asymmetric in positive and negative magnetic fields for small angles between the magnetic field and the direction perpendicular to the plane of the sample. The magnetoresistance becomes symmetric as the angle approaches 90 degree. The quantum Shubnikov de-Haas oscillations are symmetric and show signatures of topological surface states with Dirac dispersion in the form of non-zero Berry phase. However, the angular dependence of these oscillations suggests a complex three dimensional Fermi surface as the source of these oscillations, which does not exactly conform with the six ellipsoidal model of the Fermi surface of Bi2Te3. We attribute the asymmetry in the magnetoresistance to a mixing of the Hall voltage in the longitudinal resistance due to the comparable magnitude of the Hall and longitudinal resistance in our samples. This provides a clue to understanding the asymmetric magnetoresistance often seen in this and similar materials. Moreover, the asymmetric nature evolves with exposure to atmosphere and thermal cycling, which we believe is either due to exposure to atmosphere or thermal cycling, or both affecting the carrier concentration and hence the Hall signal in these samples. However, the quantum oscillations seem to be robust against these factors which suggests that the two have different origins.