COMMUNICATION
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2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim (1 of 5) 1600228 wileyonlinelibrary.com
Evidence of Both Surface and Bulk Dirac Bands and
Anisotropic Nonsaturating Magnetoresistance in ZrSiS
Xuefeng Wang,* Xingchen Pan, Ming Gao, Jihai Yu, Juan Jiang, Junran Zhang,
Huakun Zuo, Minhao Zhang, Zhongxia Wei, Wei Niu, Zhengcai Xia, Xiangang Wan,
Yulin Chen, Fengqi Song,* Yongbing Xu, Baigeng Wang, Guanghou Wang,
and Rong Zhang*
Prof. X. F. Wang, M. Gao, J. R. Zhang, M. H. Zhang,
W. Niu, Prof. Y. B. Xu, Prof. R. Zhang
National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures
Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced
Microstructures
School of Electronic Science and Engineering
Nanjing University
Nanjing 210093, P. R. China
E-mail: xfwang@nju.edu.cn; rzhang@nju.edu.cn
X. C. Pan, J. H. Yu, Z. X. Wei, Prof. X. G. Wan,
Prof. F. Q. Song, Prof. B. G. Wang, Prof. G. H. Wang
School of Physics
Nanjing University
Nanjing 210093, P. R. China
E-mail: songfengqi@nju.edu.cn
Dr. J. Jiang, Prof. Y. L. Chen
School of Physical Science and Technology
ShanghaiTech University
CAS-Shanghai Science Research Center
Shanghai 200031, P. R. China
Dr. H. K. Zuo, Prof. Z. C. Xia
Wuhan National High Magnetic Field Center
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Wuhan 430074, P. R. China
DOI: 10.1002/aelm.201600228
on the Fermi level of WTe
2
, leading to classic MR resonance
and an unsaturated MR until a large field of 60 T.
[2]
In WTe
2
,
intriguing linear MR appears when the field is aligned both in
the perpendicular and parallel directions.
[22–24]
When large MR
is suppressed by a pressure, superconductivity arises due to
possible Fermi level nesting.
[25,26]
Similar physics generating a
large quadratic MR of up to, and in fact over, 10 000 times has
been observed at 9 T in TaAs.
[27]
Recently, the type-II Weyl semi-
metal has been studied
[28]
and confirmed by visiting the empty
states using laser pumping.
[29]
Intense interest paves the way to further investigate the
aforementioned topic. ZrSiS, with the iron-pnictide super-
conductor LiFeAs structure, has been predicted to be a 2D
topological insulator
[30]
and hosts several bulk Dirac cones.
[31]
In this Communication, combining the studies of high-field
magnetotransport until 53 T, angle-resolved photoemission
spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory (DFT) cal-
culations, we provide the unambiguous evidence of the ZrSiS
as a new type of quantum material with the Dirac cones from
both the bulk and surface electronic states. The unconventional
MR keeps unsaturated until a intense field of 53 T and depicts
the interesting butterfly-shaped angular dependence.
Figure 1 shows the transport measurements of the single
crystal. The positive temperature-dependent resistance curve
indicates the metallic behavior. The nonmagnetic material
exhibits a strong MR response, as shown in Figure 1a, where
the resistance increases with increasing magnetic field. At the
temperature of 2 K and the magnetic field of 9 T, the MR ratio
reaches nearly 10 000% (Figure 1a). The Hall resistance is meas-
ured in a six-electrode configuration, illustrating a linear trend
at high temperatures and a bending feature at temperatures
lower than 50 K (see Figure S2 in the Supporting Information).
This indicates a dominant transport electronic state at high
temperatures and more electronic states participating in the
transport at lower temperatures. The MR keeps increasing with
the magnetic field and shows no saturation when an intense
pulsed field up to 53 T is applied. The MR ratio increases when
the temperature decreases and can reach 170 000% at 53 T at
2 K (Figure 1a). The MR unsaturation is shown more explic-
itly in the log–log frame, as shown in Figure 1c, where the MR
increases steadily from very low to the extreme field of 53 T.
Interestingly, when we measure the MR at a series of config-
urations with different angles between the field and crystal
cleavage plane, it is found that the maximum MR ratio of
nearly 200 000% is reached at around 45° (Figure 1b). Figure 1c
Recently, mining topological anomalies in electronic structures
and transport signature has been a central topic in the commu-
nity of quantum materials.
[1–8]
Some new concepts are emerging
including topological insulators, topological Dirac semimetals,
and Weyl semimetals, all of which have demonstrated novel
transport properties with potential device applications.
[1,9–13]
Most topological insulators and Weyl/Dirac semimetals are
featured with a linear/quasi-linear dispersion in their band
structures, which drives modulated electronic accumulation in
the lowest Landau level and paves the dominance of linear mag-
netoresistance (MR) in high magnetic fields.
[7,8,14–17]
The large
Berry curvature exists in the bands of TaAs and NbP, which
casts a large room-temperature MR ratio of up to 100 000.
[17,18]
It could also be related to the unexpectedly high room-temper-
ature mobility of these materials. The opposite Weyl charges
can be found in the Weyl/Dirac semimetals, which can simu-
late the chiral anomaly of quasiparticle transport proposed in
high energy physics. This leads to intense negative MR when
the field is aligned along the direction of the current, which
vanishes totally if the field is tilted by a very small angle.
[18–21]
Perfectly compensated electron/hole pockets have been found
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Adv. Electron. Mater. 2016, 1600228