Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, weak antilocalization effect and large linear magnetoresistance in the putative topological superconductor LuPdBi

Abstract

We present electronic transport and magnetic properties of single crystals of semimetallic half-Heusler phase LuPdBi, having theoretically predicted band inversion requisite for nontrivial topological properties. The compound exhibits superconductivity below a critical temperature $T_{\mathrm{c}}=1.8$K, with a zero-temperature upper critical field $B_{c2}\approx 2.3$T. Although superconducting state is clearly reflected in the electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility data, no corresponding anomaly can be seen in the specific heat. Temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity suggests existence of two parallel conduction channels: metallic and semiconducting, with the latter making negligible contribution at low temperatures. The magnetoresistance is huge and clearly shows a weak antilocalization effect in small magnetic fields. Above about 1.5 T, the magnetoresistance becomes linear and does not saturate in fields up to 9 T. The linear magnetoresistance is observed up to room temperature. Below 10 K, it is accompanied by Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. Their analysis reveals charge carriers with effective mass of $0.06m_e$ and a Berry phase very close to $\pi$, expected for Dirac-fermion surface states, thus corroborating topological nature of the material.

accepted for publication in Scientific Reports

References in corpus (14)

• Superconducting proximity effect and Majorana fermions at the surface of a topological insulator
• Three dimensional topological invariants for time reversal invariant Hamiltonians and the three dimensional quantum spin Hall effect
• Electrically detected interferometry of Majorana fermions in a topological insulator
• Two-dimensional Dirac fermions in a topological insulator: transport in the quantum limit
• Topological origin of subgap conductance in insulating bilayer graphene
• Quantum transport evidence for a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal phase in Cd3As2
• Bulk superconducting phase with a full energy gap in the doped topological insulator Cu_xBi_2Se_3
• Tunable Surface Conductivity in Bi2Se3 Revealed in Diffusive Electron Transport
• Topological spin-current in non-centrosymmetric superconductors
• Weak Antilocalization Effect and Noncentrosymmetric Superconductivity in a Topologically Nontrivial Semimetal LuPdBi
• Magneto-resistance up to 60 Tesla in Topological Insulator Bi2Te3 Thin Films
• Magnetic and transport properties of rare-earth-based half-Heusler phases RPdBi: prospective systems for topological quantum phenomena
• Magnetic field tuned quantum criticality of heavy fermion system YbPtBi
• Large linear magnetoresistance and weak anti-localization in Y(Lu)PtBi topological insulators

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Observation of quantum oscillations in FIB fabricated nanowires of topological insulator (Bi2Se3)
• Thermophysical and magnetic properties of p- and n-type Ti-Ni-Sn based half-Heusler alloys