Tuning Magnetotransport in a Compensated Semimetal at the Atomic Scale

Abstract

Either in bulk form, or when exfoliated into atomically thin crystals, layered transition metal dichalcogenides are continuously leading to the discovery of new phenomena. The latest example is provided by 1T'-WTe${}_2$, a semimetal recently found to exhibit the largest known magnetoresistance in bulk crystals, and predicted to become a two-dimensional topological insulator in strained monolayers. Here, we show that reducing the thickness through facile exfoliation provides an effective experimental knob to tune the electronic properties of WTe${}_2$, which allows us to identify the microscopic mechanisms responsible for the observed classical and quantum magnetotransport down to the ultimate atomic scale. We find that the longitudinal resistance and the very unconventional B-dependence of the Hall resistance are reproduced quantitatively in terms of a classical two-band model for crystals as thin as six monolayers, and that for thinner crystals a crossover to an insulating, Anderson-localized state occurs. Besides establishing the origin of the very large magnetoresistance of bulk WTe${}_2$, our results represent the first, complete validation of the classical theory for two-band electron-hole transport, and indicate that atomically thin WTe${}_2$ layers remain gapless semimetals, from which we conclude that searching for a topological insulating state by straining monolayers is a challenging, but feasible experiment.

Originally submitted version including supplementary information, in compliance with editorial guidelines. The final version will appear on Nature Communications soon

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Cited by in corpus (55)

• Observation of the Quantum Spin Hall Effect up to 100 Kelvin in a Monolayer Crystal
• Control of spin-orbit torques through crystal symmetry in WTe2/ferromagnet bilayers
• Edge conduction in monolayer WTe2
• Gate-Tunable Negative Longitudinal Magnetoresistance in the Predicted Type-II Weyl Semimetal WTe2
• Observation of Large Topologically Trivial Fermi-Arcs in the Candidate Type-II Weyl Semimetal WTe2
• Van der Waals thin films of WTe2 for natural hyperbolic plasmonic surfaces
• Thickness dependence of spin-orbit torques generated by WTe2
• Environmental Instability and Degradation of Single- and Few-Layer WTe2 Nanosheets in Ambient Conditions
• Direct observation of vortices in an electron fluid
• High Current Density and Low Thermal Conductivity of Atomically Thin Semimetallic WTe2
• The Optical Properties and Plasmonics of Anisotropic 2-Dimensional Materials
• One-Dimensional Edge Transport in Few-Layer WTe${}_2$
• Bulk Fermi-surface of the Weyl type-II semi-metallic candidate MoTe2
• Microfocus laser-ARPES on encapsulated mono-, bi-, and few-layer 1T'-WTe${}_2$
• Nonlinear magnetotransport shaped by Fermi surface topology and convexity in WTe2
• Proximity-Induced Superconductivity with Subgap Anomaly in Type II Weyl Semi-Metal WTe2
• Tailored tunnel magnetoresistance response in three ultrathin chromium trihalides
• Direct evidence for charge compensation induced large magnetoresistance in thin WTe2
• Elastic and electronic tuning of magnetoresistance in MoTe${}_2$
• Magnetoresistance and Quantum Oscillations of an Electrostatically Tuned Semimetal-to-Metal Transition in Ultra-Thin WTe2
• Large magnetoresistance in type-II Weyl semimetal WP${}_2$
• Thermopower and Unconventional Nernst in the Predicted Type-II Weyl Semi-metal WTe${}_2$
• Determination of the thickness and orientation of few-layer tungsten ditelluride using polarized Raman spectroscopy
• Extreme magnetoresistance induced by Zeeman effect-driven electron-hole compensation and topological protection in MoSi${}_2$
• Thickness dependent electronic structure in WTe${}_2$ thin films
• Effect of aging-induced disorder on the quantum transport properties of atomically thin WTe${}_2$
• Large and Robust Charge-to-Spin Conversion in Sputtered Conductive WTex with Disorder
• Semiconducting van der Waals Interfaces as Artificial Semiconductors
• Tunable plasmons in large area WTe2 thin films
• Crossover Between Weak Antilocalization and Weak Localization and Electron-Electron Interaction in Few-Layer WTe${}_2$
• Direct Observation of Long-range field-effect from gate tuning of non-local conductivity
• The study on quantum material WTe2
• Volkov-Pankratov states in topological graphene nanoribbons
• Oscillating magnetoresistance due to fragile spin structure in metallic GdPd${}_3$
• Thickness Dependence of Magneto-transport Properties in Tungsten Ditelluride
• Non-stoichiometry effects on the extreme magnetoresistance in Weyl semimetal WTe2
• Imaging the Ettingshausen effect and cryogenic thermoelectric cooling in a van der Waals semimetal
• Para-hydrodynamics from weak surface scattering in ultraclean thin flakes
• Multi-frequency Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in topological semimetal Pt${}_2$HgSe${}_3$
• Band engineering of a magnetic thin film rare earth monopnictide
• Two Types of 3D Quantum Hall Effects in Multilayer WTe${}_2$
• Electronic transport and Fermi surface of Weyl semimetal WTe2: quantum oscillations and first-principles study
• Quantum oscillation study of the large magnetoresistance in Mo substituted WTe${}_2$ single crystals
• Thermal robustness of the quantum spin Hall phase in monolayer WTe${}_2$
• Tilted Dirac Fermions
• Pseudo-hydrodynamic flow of quasiparticles in semimetal WTe2 at room temperature
• Bipolar conduction and giant positive magnetoresistance in doped metallic titanium oxide heterostructures
• Systematic study of superconductivity in few-layer $T_d$-MoTe${}_2$
• The out-of-plane magnetoresistance in a Van der Waals thin film of WTe2
• Transport properties of semimetallic transition metal dichalcogenides
• Spin-orbit-driven quarter semimetals in rhombohedral graphene
• Large inverted band-gap in strained three-layer InAs/GaInSb quantum wells
• Electrical and Structural Response of Nine-Atom-Wide Armchair Graphene Nanoribbon Transistors to Gamma Irradiation
• Large-area and high-quality 2D transition metal telluride
• Mechanically tunable spontaneous vertical charge redistribution in few-layer WTe2