Abstract
The Dirac and Weyl semimetals are unusual materials in which the nodes of the bulk states are protected against gap formation by crystalline symmetry1,2,3,4. The chiral anomaly5,6, predicted to occur in both systems7,8,9,10, was recently observed as a negative longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR) in Na3Bi (ref. 11) and in TaAs (ref. 12). An important issue is whether Weyl physics appears in a broader class of materials. We report evidence for the chiral anomaly in the half-Heusler GdPtBi. In zero field, GdPtBi is a zero-gap semiconductor with quadratic bands13,14. In a magnetic field, the Zeeman energy leads to Weyl nodes15. We have observed a large negative LMR with the field-steering properties specific to the chiral anomaly. The chiral anomaly also induces strong suppression of the thermopower. We report a detailed study of the thermoelectric response function αxx of Weyl fermions. The scheme of creating Weyl nodes from quadratic bands suggests that the chiral anomaly may be observable in a broad class of semimetals.
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Acknowledgements
We are indebted to J. Cano, B. Bradlyn and J. Xiong for discussions, and S. Koohpayeh, J. Krizan and W. Xie for technical assistance. The research is supported by a MURI award for topological insulators (ARO W911NF-12-1-0461) and by the Army Research Office (ARO W911NF-11-1-0379). The growth and characterization of crystals were performed by S.K. and R.J.C., with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF MRSEC grant DMR 1420541). C.A.B. was an REU participant funded by the NSF-MRSEC grant DMR 1420541. N.P.O. acknowledges the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations EPiQS Initiative through Grant GBMF4539. B.A.B. acknowledges support by NSF CAREER DMR-095242, ONR-N00014-11-1-0635, NSF grant DMR 1420541, Packard Foundation and a Keck grant.
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M.H. performed most of the measurements with early assistance from C.A.B. The crystals were grown and characterized by S.K. and R.J.C. Analyses of the results were done by M.H., Z.W., Q.G., B.A.B. and N.P.O. Simulations of current distributions were performed by S.L. The manuscript was written by M.H. and N.P.O., with contributions from all authors.
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Hirschberger, M., Kushwaha, S., Wang, Z. et al. The chiral anomaly and thermopower of Weyl fermions in the half-Heusler GdPtBi. Nature Mater 15, 1161–1165 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4684
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4684
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