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Quantum Hall effect of Weyl fermions in n-type semiconducting tellurene

Nature Nanotechnology volume 15, pages 585–591 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Dirac and Weyl nodal materials can host low-energy relativistic quasiparticles. Under strong magnetic fields, the topological properties of Dirac/Weyl materials can directly be observed through quantum Hall states. However, most Dirac/Weyl nodes generically exist in semimetals without exploitable band gaps due to their accidental band-crossing origin. Here, we report the first experimental observation of Weyl fermions in a semiconductor. Tellurene, the two-dimensional form of tellurium, possesses a chiral crystal structure which induces unconventional Weyl nodes with a hedgehog-like radial spin texture near the conduction band edge. We synthesize high-quality n-type tellurene by a hydrothermal method with subsequent dielectric doping and detect a topologically non-trivial π Berry phase in quantum Hall sequences. Our work expands the spectrum of Weyl matter into semiconductors and offers a new platform to design novel quantum devices by marrying the advantages of topological materials to versatile semiconductors.

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Fig. 1: Crystal structure of Te and n-type ALD doped tellurene devices.
Fig. 2: Quantum Hall effect in tellurene 2D electron gas.
Fig. 3: Shubnikov–de Haas oscillation analysis of two layers of electrons in a Te wide quantum well.
Fig. 4: Weyl nodes and Berry phase near Te conduction band edge.
Fig. 5: Temperature-dependent SdH oscillations and effective mass of Weyl fermions.

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The data that supports the argument and generates the plots in this paper are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

P.D.Y. was supported by NSF/AFOSR 2DARE programmes ARO and SRC. W.W. acknowledges the College of Engineering and School of Industrial Engineering at Purdue University for the startup support. W.W. was partially supported by a grant from the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Junior Faculty Enhancement Award Programme. W.W. and P.D.Y. were also supported by NSF under grant no. CMMI-1762698. A portion of this work was performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by National Science Foundation Cooperative Agreement No. DMR-1644779 and the State of Florida. G.Q. and C.N. acknowledge technical support from National High Magnetic Field Laboratory staff J. Jaroszynski, A. Suslov and W. Coniglio. The authors want to give special thanks to K. von Klitzing, T. Ando, W. Pan, K. Chang, F. Zhang, C. Liu, K. Cho, Y. Nie and J. Hwang for the insightful discussions on electronic structures of Te. The authors also acknowledge A. R. Charnas for editorial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Gang Qiu, Chang Niu, Mengwei Si, Zhuocheng Zhang & Peide D. Ye

  2. Birck Nanotechnology Centre, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Gang Qiu, Chang Niu, Mengwei Si, Zhuocheng Zhang & Peide D. Ye

  3. School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Yixiu Wang & Wenzhuo Wu

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Contributions

P.D.Y. conceived and supervised the project. P.D.Y. and G.Q. designed the experiments. Y.W. synthesized the material under the supervision of W.W. G.Q. and C.N. fabricated the devices. G.Q., C.N. and Z.Z. performed the magneto-transport measurements. G.Q., C.N., M.S. and Z.Z. analysed the data. P.D.Y. and G.Q. wrote the manuscript with input and comments from all the authors.

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Correspondence to Peide D. Ye.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Quantum Hall effect of another high mobility sample.

Longitudinal (Rxx, red) and transverse (Rxy, blue) resistance measured under magnetic field up to 31.4 T at 1.7 K.

Extended Data Fig. 2 SdH oscillations in a tilted magnetic field.

The curves are separated by 80 Ω offset for clarity. No evidence of coincidence effect is observed, suggesting a small effective g-factor.

Extended Data Fig. 3

Extracting Berry phase using SdH oscillation phase offset from eight more devices.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Notes 1–5, Supplementary Figs. 1–8 and refs. 1–12.

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Qiu, G., Niu, C., Wang, Y. et al. Quantum Hall effect of Weyl fermions in n-type semiconducting tellurene. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 585–591 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0715-4

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