Anisotropic electrical and thermal magnetotransport in the magnetic semimetal GdPtBi

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Clemens Schindler - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Stanislaw Galeski - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Walter Schnelle - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Rafał Wawrzyńczak - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Wajdi Abdel-Haq - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Satya N. Guin - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Johannes Kroder - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Nitesh Kumar - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Chenguang Fu - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Horst Borrmann - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Chandra Shekhar - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Claudia Felser - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Tobias Meng - , Chair of Theoretical Solid State Physics (Author)
  • Adolfo G. Grushin - , Université Grenoble Alpes (Author)
  • Yang Zhang - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Yan Sun - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)
  • Johannes Gooth - , Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids (Author)

Abstract

The half-Heusler rare-earth intermetallic GdPtBi has recently gained attention due to peculiar magnetotransport phenomena that have been associated with the possible existence of Weyl fermions, thought to arise from the crossings of spin-split conduction and valence bands. On the other hand, similar magnetotransport phenomena observed in other rare-earth intermetallics have often been attributed to the interaction of itinerant carriers with localized magnetic moments stemming from the 4f shell of the rare-earth element. In order to address the origin of the magnetotransport phenomena in GdPtBi, we performed a comprehensive study of the magnetization, electrical, and thermal magnetoresistivity on two single-crystalline GdPtBi samples. In addition, we performed an analysis of the Fermi surface via Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in one of the samples and compared the results to ab initio band structure calculations. Our findings indicate that the electrical and thermal magnetotransport in GdPtBi cannot be solely explained by Weyl physics and is strongly influenced by the interaction of both itinerant charge carriers and phonons with localized magnetic Gd ions and possibly also paramagnetic impurities.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number125119
JournalPhysical Review B
Volume101
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 15 Mar 2020
Peer-reviewedYes