Lifshitz transition mediated electronic transport anomaly in bulk ZrTe5

TL;DR

This study provides transport evidence that the anomalous resistivity peak in ZrTe$_5$ is caused by a Lifshitz transition in its Dirac band, controllable via carrier doping, with implications for tuning its electronic properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the resistivity anomaly in ZrTe$_5$ is due to a Lifshitz transition in the Dirac band, and shows how to control this transition through carrier doping.

Findings

The resistivity peak correlates with a Lifshitz transition in the Dirac band.

The transition temperature $T_p$ scales with carrier concentration as $n_H^{0.27}$.

Carrier doping effectively tunes the Fermi level and the associated transport anomaly.

Abstract

Zirconium pentatelluride ZrTe$_5$, a fascinating topological material platform, hosts exotic chiral fermions in its highly anisotropic three-dimensional Dirac band and holds great promise advancing the next-generation information technology. However, the origin underlying its anomalous resistivity peak has been under debate for decades. Here we provide transport evidence substantiating the anomaly to be a direct manifestation of a Lifshitz transition in the Dirac band with an ultrahigh carrier mobility exceeding 3$\times$10$^5$ cm$^2$ V$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$. We demonstrate that the Lifshitz transition is readily controllable by means of carrier doping, which sets the anomaly peak temperature $T_p$. $T_p$ is found to scale approximately as $n_H^{0.27}$, where the Hall carrier concentration $n_H$ is linked with the Fermi level by $\epsilon_F$ $\propto$ $n_H^{1/3}$ in a linearly dispersed Dirac band. This relation indicates $T_p$ monotonically increases with $\epsilon_F$, which serves as an effective knob for fine tuning transport properties in pentatelluride-based Dirac semimetals.