Magnetotransport properties of tellurium under extreme conditions

Abstract

This study investigates the transport properties of a chiral elemental semiconductor tellurium (Te) under magnetic fields and pressure. Application of hydrostatic pressure reduces the resistivity of Te, while its temperature dependence remains semiconducting up to 4 GPa, contrary to recent theoretical and experimental studies. Application of higher pressure causes structural as well as semiconductor-metal transitions. The resulting metallic phase above 4 GPa exhibits superconductivity at 2 K along with a noticeable linear magnetoresistance effect. On the other hand, at ambient pressure, we identified metallic surface states on the as-cleaved (1010) surfaces of Te. The nature of these metallic surface states has been systematically studied by analyzing quantum oscillations observed in high magnetic fields. We clarify that a well-defined metallic surface state exists not only on chemically etched samples that were previously reported, but also on as-cleaved ones.

Quantum Linear Magnetoresistance and Nontrivial Berry Phase in High‐Mobility Elemental Tellurium

“…Some important topics include the existence of a surface state and the underlying mechanism of various MR effects. [37][38][39][40] Since the hollow tubular structure of Te is common in a variety of different synthetic methods, [41][42][43] the effect of shape structure on the transport feature needs to be ruled out while it has not been carefully investigated. Theoretically, the band structure of the micro-sized tubes and flakes are the same since they both belong to 3D bulk Te samples.…”

High-Pressure Structural Transformation Pathway and Electronic Properties of AgGaTe2: Ab Initio Evolutionary Structural Searching

“…Moreover, it is wellknown that tellurium acts as a superconductor at 4 GPa. 58,59 Also, tellurium hydride (H 4 Te) has recently been reported to be a high-Tc superconductor with the critical temperature (T c ) of 104 K at 170 GPa. 60 This motivates us to investigate further the phonon−electron coupling in the metallic high-pressure phases of AgGaTe 2 .…”

Chirality-Induced Electrical Generation of Magnetism in Nonmagnetic Elemental Tellurium

“…If a surface current exists, a bulk current could be overestimated, and the coefficients could be underestimated. In fact, a metallic surface state in the {10 10} plane was observed [41][42][43]. Note that even if a non-negligible amount of a surface current was present, the Oersted field generated by the surface current would cause only a broadening (not shift) of the NMR spectra; thus, the observed current-induced shift originates from the magnetization of the bulk part of the samples.…”