English

Possible pressure-induced topological quantum phase transition in the nodal line semimetal ZrSiS

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2019-02-21 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

ZrSiS has recently gained attention due to its unusual electronic properties: nearly perfect electron-hole compensation, large, anisotropic magneto-resistance, multiple Dirac nodes near the Fermi level, and an extremely large range of linear dispersion of up to 2 eV. We have carried out a series of high pressure electrical resistivity measurements on single crystals of ZrSiS. Shubnikov-de Haas measurements show two distinct oscillation frequencies. For the smaller orbit, we observe a change in the phase of 0.5, which occurs between 0.16 - 0.5 GPa. This change in phase is accompanied by an abrupt decrease of the cross-sectional area of this Fermi surface. We attribute this change in phase to a possible topological quantum phase transition. The phase of the larger orbit exhibits a Berry phase of pi and remains roughly constant up to 2.3 GPa. Resistivity measurements to higher pressures show no evidence for pressure-induced superconductivity to at least 20 GPa.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.07043,
  title  = {Possible pressure-induced topological quantum phase transition in the nodal line semimetal ZrSiS},
  author = {D. VanGennep and T. A. Paul and C. W. Yerger and S. T. Weir and Y. K. Vohra and J. J. Hamlin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.07043},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures