Thickness dependent transition from the 1T${}^{\prime }$ to Weyl semimetal phase in ultrathin MoTe${}_2$: Electrical transport, Noise and Raman studies

Abstract

Bulk 1T${}^{\prime }$-MoTe${}_2$ shows a structural phase transition from 1T${}^{\prime }$ to Weyl semimetallic (WSM) $T_d$ phase at $\sim$ 240 K. This phase transition and transport properties in the two phases have not been investigated on ultra-thin crystals. Here we report electrical transport, $1/f$ noise and Raman studies in ultra-thin 1T${}^{\prime }$-MoTe${}_2$ ($\sim$ 5 to 16 nm thick) field-effect transistors (FETs) devices as a function of temperature. The electrical resistivities for thickness 16 nm and 11 nm show maxima at temperatures 208 K and 178 K, respectively, making a transition from semiconducting to semi-metallic phase, hitherto not observed in bulk samples. Raman frequencies and linewidths for 11nm thick crystal show change around 178 K, attributed to additional contribution to the phonon self-energy due to enhanced electron-phonon interaction in the WSM phase. Further, the resistivity at low-temperature shows an upturn below 20 K along with the maximum in the power spectral density of the low frequency $1/f$ noise. The latter rules out the metal-insulator transition (MIT) being responsible for the upturn of resistivity below 20 K. The low temperature resistivity follows $\rho \propto 1/T$, changing to $\rho \propto T$ with increasing temperature supports electron-electron interaction physics at electron-hole symmetric Weyl nodes below 20 K. These observations will pave the way to unravel the properties of WSM state in layered ultra-thin van der Waals materials.

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• Structural Phase Transition and Interlayer Coupling in Few-Layer 1T' and Td MoTe2