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Ultrahigh mobility and giant magnetoresistance in the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2

Nature Materials 14, 280–284 (2015) | Download Citation

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Abstract

Dirac and Weyl semimetals are 3D analogues of graphene in which crystalline symmetry protects the nodes against gap formation1,2,3. Na3Bi and Cd3As2 were predicted to be Dirac semimetals4,5, and recently confirmed to be so by photoemission experiments6,7,8. Several novel transport properties in a magnetic field have been proposed for Dirac semimetals2,9,10,11. Here, we report a property of Cd3As2 that was unpredicted, namely a remarkable protection mechanism that strongly suppresses backscattering in zero magnetic field. In single crystals, the protection results in ultrahigh mobility, 9 × 106 cm2 V−1 s−1 at 5 K. Suppression of backscattering results in a transport lifetime 104 times longer than the quantum lifetime. The lifting of this protection by the applied magnetic field leads to a very large magnetoresistance. We discuss how this may relate to changes to the Fermi surface induced by the applied magnetic field.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Bernevig, S. Parameswaran, A. Vishwanath and A. Yazdani for valuable discussions, and N. Yao for assistance with EDX measurements. N.P.O. is supported by the Army Research Office (ARO W911NF-11-1-0379). R.J.C. and N.P.O. are supported by a MURI grant on Topological Insulators (ARO W911NF-12-1-0461) and by the US National Science Foundation (grant number DMR 0819860). T.L. acknowledges scholarship support from the Japan Student Services Organization. Some of the experiments were performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. DMR-1157490, the State of Florida, and the US Department of Energy.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    • Tian Liang
    • , Minhao Liu
    •  & N. P. Ong

  2. Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

    • Quinn Gibson
    • , Mazhar N. Ali
    •  & R. J. Cava

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Contributions

T.L. performed and analysed the measurements. Q.G., M.N.A. and R.J.C. grew the crystals and performed the materials composition and structural analyses. M.L. built a key apparatus. R.J.C. and N.P.O. conceived the project and analysed the results. All authors contributed to preparing the manuscript.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to N. P. Ong.

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https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat4143

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