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The chiral anomaly and thermopower of Weyl fermions in the half-Heusler GdPtBi

Nature Materials volume 15, pages 1161–1165 (2016)Cite this article

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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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Figure 1: The field-induced band crossing in GdBiPt and the chiral anomaly in its longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR).
Figure 2: Dependence of the LMR in GdBiPt on field-tilt angles (, ).
Figure 3: Variation of the thermopower with B and quantum oscillations in GdBiPt.
Figure 4: Anisotropy of the thermoelectric response in GdBiPt in a longitudinal field.

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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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Author notes

  1. Carina A. Belvin

    Present address: Present address: Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts 02481, USA.,

Authors and Affiliations

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

    Max Hirschberger, Zhijun Wang, Sihang Liang, Carina A. Belvin, B. A. Bernevig & N. P. Ong

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

    Satya Kushwaha, Quinn Gibson & R. J. Cava

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Contributions

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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Correspondence to Max Hirschberger or N. P. Ong.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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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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