Three-dimensional quantum Hall effect and metal–insulator transition in ZrTe5

Fangdong Tang, Yafei Ren, Peipei Wang, Ruidan Zhong, John Schneeloch, Shengyuan A. Yang (), Kun Yang, Patrick A. Lee, Genda Gu, Zhenhua Qiao () and Liyuan Zhang ()
Additional contact information
Fangdong Tang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Yafei Ren: University of Science and Technology of China
Peipei Wang: Southern University of Science and Technology
Ruidan Zhong: Brookhaven National Laboratory
John Schneeloch: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Shengyuan A. Yang: Singapore University of Technology and Design
Kun Yang: Florida State University
Patrick A. Lee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Genda Gu: Brookhaven National Laboratory
Zhenhua Qiao: University of Science and Technology of China
Liyuan Zhang: Southern University of Science and Technology

Nature, 2019, vol. 569, issue 7757, 537-541

Abstract: Abstract The discovery of the quantum Hall effect (QHE)1,2 in two-dimensional electronic systems has given topology a central role in condensed matter physics. Although the possibility of generalizing the QHE to three-dimensional (3D) electronic systems3,4 was proposed decades ago, it has not been demonstrated experimentally. Here we report the experimental realization of the 3D QHE in bulk zirconium pentatelluride (ZrTe5) crystals. We perform low-temperature electric-transport measurements on bulk ZrTe5 crystals under a magnetic field and achieve the extreme quantum limit, where only the lowest Landau level is occupied, at relatively low magnetic fields. In this regime, we observe a dissipationless longitudinal resistivity close to zero, accompanied by a well-developed Hall resistivity plateau proportional to half of the Fermi wavelength along the field direction. This response is the signature of the 3D QHE and strongly suggests a Fermi surface instability driven by enhanced interaction effects in the extreme quantum limit. By further increasing the magnetic field, both the longitudinal and Hall resistivity increase considerably and display a metal–insulator transition, which represents another magnetic-field-driven quantum phase transition. Our findings provide experimental evidence of the 3D QHE and a promising platform for further exploration of exotic quantum phases and transitions in 3D systems.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1180-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:nature:v:569:y:2019:i:7757:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1180-9

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

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1180-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

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