Observation of the Chiral-Anomaly-Induced Negative Magnetoresistance in 3D Weyl Semimetal TaAs

Abstract

Weyl semi-metal is the three dimensional analog of graphene. According to the quantum field theory, the appearance of Weyl points near the Fermi level will cause novel transport phenomena related to chiral anomaly. In the present paper, we report the first experimental evidence for the long-anticipated negative magneto-resistance generated by the chiral anomaly in a newly predicted time-reversal invariant Weyl semi-metal material TaAs. Clear Shubnikov de Haas oscillations (SdH) have been detected starting from very weak magnetic field. Analysis of the SdH peaks gives the Berry phase accumulated along the cyclotron orbits to be π, indicating the existence of Weyl points.When two non-degenerate bands cross in three dimensional momentum space, the crossing points are called Weyl points, which can be viewed as magnetic monopoles(1) or topological defects (2) in band structure, like "knots" on a rope. Near Weyl points, the low energy physics can be described by Weyl equations (3) with distinct chirality (either left-or right-handed), which mimics the relativistic field theory in particle physics. On lattice system, Weyl points always appear in pairs with opposite chirality and are topologically stable against perturbations that keep translational symmetry (4-7). If two weyl points with opposite chirality meet in the momentum space, they will generally annihilate each other, but may also be stabilized as 3D Dirac points by additional (such as crystalline) symmetry (8-11). For materials withWeyl points located near the Fermi level, called as Weyl semi-metals (WSMs), exotic low energy physics will be expected, such as the Fermi arcs on the surfaces (5,6), and the chiral-anomaly induced quantum transport (12)(13)(14)(15). Recently, 3D Dirac semimetals, Na 3 Bi and Cd 3 As 2 , have been theoretically predicted (9,10) and experimentally confirmed (16)(17)(18)(19)(20), while WSM are still waiting for its experimental verification in spite of various theoretical proposals (5,6,(21)(22)(23)(24)(25).The anomalous DC transport properties are important consequence of the topological band structure (14,26,27). In topological insulators (TI), the transport properties are dominated by the topological surfaces states (SS), where the lack of back scattering caused by the unique spin structure of the SS leads to the weak anti-localization (WAL) behavior. While in Weyl semi-metals, the bulk states are semi-metallic and dominate the DC transport. In relativistic field theory, for a continue system described by Weyl equation, chiral anomaly can be understood as the non-conservation of the particle number with given chirality, which only happens under the presence of

Emergent functions of quantum materials

“…There must also be a surface state that connects them, known as a Fermi arc 73 . And an effect known as the chiral anomaly, discussed for both Weyl and Dirac fermions 74 , which results in a negative magnetoresistance, was theoretically predicted 75 and observed experimentally 76 .…”

Nernst and magnetothermal conductivity in a lattice model of Weyl fermions

“…A number of recent experiments have claimed to be able to observe the Weyl semimetal phase in an inversion asymmetric compound TaAs [23][24][25] , and also in a 3D double gyroid photonic crystal 26 , without breaking TR. Another route which can result in the experimental verification of the novel WSM phase is to first realize a 3D Dirac semimetal and then break time reversal symmetry by applying a magnetic field, which will split a Dirac cone into a pair of Weyl nodes.…”

Topological semimetals with helicoid surface states

“…The nontrivial topology gives rise to anomalous bulk properties of topological semimetals such as the chiral anomaly [3][4][5]. Several classes of topological semimetals have been theoretically proposed so far, including Weyl, [2,[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], Dirac [14][15][16][17] and nodal line semimetals [7,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30], some among which have been experimentally observed [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47].Surface states of topological semimetals have attracted much attention. On the surface of a Weyl semimetal, the Fermi surface consists of open ar...…”