Drastic Pressure Effect on the Extremely Large Magnetoresistance in ${\mathrm{WTe}}_{2}$: Quantum Oscillation Study

Drastic Pressure Effect on the Extremely Large Magnetoresistance in ${WTe}_{2}$ : Quantum Oscillation Study

P. L. Cai, J. Hu, L. P. He, J. Pan, X. C. Hong, Z. Zhang, J. Zhang, J. Wei, Z. Q. Mao, and S. Y. Li

Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 057202 – Published 28 July 2015

Abstract

The quantum oscillations of the magnetoresistance under ambient and high pressure have been studied for ${WTe}_{2}$ single crystals, in which extremely large magnetoresistance was discovered recently. By analyzing the Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations, four Fermi surfaces are identified, and two of them are found to persist to high pressure. The sizes of these two pockets are comparable, but show increasing difference with pressure. At 0.3 K and in 14.5 T, the magnetoresistance decreases drastically from $1.25 \times 10^{5} %$ under ambient pressure to $7.47 \times 10^{3} %$ under 23.6 kbar, which is likely caused by the relative change of Fermi surfaces. These results support the scenario that the perfect balance between the electron and hole populations is the origin of the extremely large magnetoresistance in ${WTe}_{2}$ .

Received 31 December 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.057202

Authors & Affiliations

P. L. Cai¹, J. Hu², L. P. He¹, J. Pan¹, X. C. Hong¹, Z. Zhang¹, J. Zhang¹, J. Wei², Z. Q. Mao², and S. Y. Li^1,3,*

¹State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, Department of Physics, and Laboratory of Advanced Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People’s Republic of China
²Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana 70118, USA
³Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, People’s Republic of China