Magnetic torque anomaly in the quantum limit of Weyl semimetals

Philip J. W. Moll (), Andrew C. Potter, Nityan L. Nair, B. J. Ramshaw, K. A. Modic, Scott Riggs, Bin Zeng, Nirmal J. Ghimire, Eric D. Bauer, Robert Kealhofer, Filip Ronning and James G. Analytis ()
Additional contact information
Philip J. W. Moll: University of California Berkeley
Andrew C. Potter: University of California Berkeley
Nityan L. Nair: University of California Berkeley
B. J. Ramshaw: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, TA-35
K. A. Modic: Max-Planck-Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids
Scott Riggs: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Bin Zeng: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Nirmal J. Ghimire: Los Alamos National Laboratory, TA-3
Eric D. Bauer: Los Alamos National Laboratory, TA-3
Robert Kealhofer: University of California Berkeley
Filip Ronning: Los Alamos National Laboratory, TA-3
James G. Analytis: University of California Berkeley

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Electrons in materials with linear dispersion behave as massless Weyl- or Dirac-quasiparticles, and continue to intrigue due to their close resemblance to elusive ultra-relativistic particles as well as their potential for future electronics. Yet the experimental signatures of Weyl-fermions are often subtle and indirect, in particular if they coexist with conventional, massive quasiparticles. Here we show a pronounced anomaly in the magnetic torque of the Weyl semimetal NbAs upon entering the quantum limit state in high magnetic fields. The torque changes sign in the quantum limit, signalling a reversal of the magnetic anisotropy that can be directly attributed to the topological nature of the Weyl electrons. Our results establish that anomalous quantum limit torque measurements provide a direct experimental method to identify and distinguish Weyl and Dirac systems.

Date: 2016
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms12492 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms12492

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12492

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().