Origin of the quasi-quantized Hall effect in ZrTe5
Journal article, 2021
The quantum Hall effect (QHE) is traditionally considered to be a purely two-dimensional (2D) phenomenon. Recently, however, a three-dimensional (3D) version of the QHE was reported in the Dirac semimetal ZrTe . It was proposed to arise from a magnetic-field-driven Fermi surface instability, transforming the original 3D electron system into a stack of 2D sheets. Here, we report thermodynamic, spectroscopic, thermoelectric and charge transport measurements on such ZrTe samples. The measured properties: magnetization, ultrasound propagation, scanning tunneling spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy, show no signatures of a Fermi surface instability, consistent with in-field single crystal X-ray diffraction. Instead, a direct comparison of the experimental data with linear response calculations based on an effective 3D Dirac Hamiltonian suggests that the quasi-quantization of the observed Hall response emerges from the interplay of the intrinsic properties of the ZrTe electronic structure and its Dirac-type semi-metallic character.
Author
S. Galeski
Max Planck Society
T. Ehmcke
Technische Universität Dresden
R. Wawrzyńczak
Max Planck Society
P. M. Lozano
Brookhaven National Laboratory
K. Cho
Max Planck Society
A. Sharma
Max Planck Society
S. Das
Max Planck Society
F. Küster
Max Planck Society
P. Sessi
Max Planck Society
M. Brando
Max Planck Society
R. Küchler
Max Planck Society
A. Markou
Max Planck Society
M. König
Max Planck Society
P. Swekis
Max Planck Society
C. Felser
Max Planck Society
Yasmine Sassa
Chalmers, Physics, Materials Physics
Q. Li
Brookhaven National Laboratory
G. Gu
Brookhaven National Laboratory
M. V. Zimmermann
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
O. Ivashko
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
D. I. Gorbunov
Helmholtz
S. Zherlitsyn
Helmholtz
T. Förster
Helmholtz
S. S.P. Parkin
Max Planck Society
J. Wosnitza
Helmholtz
Technische Universität Dresden
T. Meng
Technische Universität Dresden
J. Gooth
Max Planck Society
Technische Universität Dresden
Nature Communications
2041-1723 (ISSN) 20411723 (eISSN)
Vol. 12 1 3197Subject Categories
Inorganic Chemistry
Materials Chemistry
Condensed Matter Physics
DOI
10.1038/s41467-021-23435-y
PubMed
34045452