Anomalous magnetotransport properties of high-quality single crystals of Weyl semimetal WTe2: Sign change of Hall resistivity

Abstract

We report on a systematic study of Hall effect using high quality single crystals of type-II Weyl semimetal WTe2 with the applied magnetic field B//c. The residual resistivity ratio of 1330 and the large magnetoresistance of 1.5\times10^6 % in 9 T at 2 K, being in the highest class in the literature, attest to their high quality. Based on a simple two-band model, the densities (n_e and n_h) and mobilities (μ_e and μ_h) for electron and hole carriers have been uniquely determined combining both Hall- and electrical-resistivity data. The difference between ne and nh is ~1% at 2 K, indicating that the system is in an almost compensated condition. The negative Hall resistivity growing rapidly below ~20 K is due to a rapidly increasing μ_h/μ_e approaching one. Below 3 K in a low field region, we found the Hall resistivity becomes positive, reflecting that μ_h/μ_e finally exceeds one in this region. These anomalous behaviors of the carrier densities and mobilities might be associated with the existence of a Lifshitz transition and/or the spin texture on the Fermi surface.

12 pages, 4 figures, SCES-2017 Proceeding, accepted by Physica B