Electrical transport in nano-thick ZrTe${}_5$ sheets: from three to two dimensions

Abstract

ZrTe${}_5$ is a newly discovered topological material. Shortly after a single layer ZrTe${}_5$ had been predicted to be a two-dimensional topological insulator, a handful of experiments have been carried out on bulk ZrTe${}_5$ crystals, which however suggest that its bulk form may be a three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetal. We report the first transport study on ultra thin ZrTe${}_5$ flakes down to 10 nm. A significant modulation of the characteristic resistivity maximum in the temperature dependence by thickness has been observed. Remarkably, the metallic behavior, occurring only below about 150 K in bulk, persists to over 320 K for flakes less than 20 nm thick. Furthermore, the resistivity maximum can be greatly tuned by ionic gating. Combined with the Hall resistance, we identify contributions from a semiconducting and a semimetallic bands. The enhancement of the metallic state in thin flakes are consequence of shifting of the energy bands. Our results suggest that the band structure sensitively depends on the film thickness, which may explain the divergent experimental observations on bulk materials.

17 pages, 9 figures

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Cited by in corpus (23)

• One-Dimensional van der Waals Quantum Materials -- State of the Art and Perspectives
• Giant Planar Hall Effect in the Dirac Semimetal ZrTe5
• Discovery of Log-Periodic Oscillations in Ultra-Quantum Topological Materials
• Observation of a thermoelectric Hall plateau in the extreme quantum limit
• Coexistence of topological Dirac fermions in the surface and three-dimensional Dirac cone state in the bulk of ZrTe${}_5$ single crystal
• Landau level spectroscopy of massive Dirac fermions in single-crystalline ZrTe5 thin flakes
• Unconventional Hall Effect induced by Berry Curvature
• Electron Transport in Dirac and Weyl Semimetals
• Thickness-tuned transition of band topology in ZrTe5 nanosheets
• Log-periodic quantum magneto-oscillations and discrete scale invariance in topological material HfTe5
• Electron-electron interactions and weak anti-localization in few-layer ZrTe5 devices
• Multi-carrier transport in ZrTe5 film
• Gate-tunable multiband transport in ZrTe5 thin devices
• Unusual magnetoresistance oscillations in preferentially oriented p-type polycrystalline ZrTe5
• Revealing the band structure of ZrTe${}_5$ using Multicarrier Transport
• Signature of pressure-induced topological phase transition in ZrTe${}_5$
• Anomalous magneto-thermoelectric behavior in massive Dirac materials
• Tunable discrete scale invariance in transition-metal pentatelluride flakes
• Extremely low-energy collective modes in a quasi-one-dimensional system
• Crossover behavior in the magnetoresistance of thin flakes of the topological material ZrTe5
• Turning ZrTe5 into semiconductor through atomic intercalation
• Abrupt switching of the anomalous Hall effect by field-rotation in nonmagnetic ZrTe5
• Pseudo anomalous Hall effect in semiconductors and semimetals: A classical perspective