The extremely large magnetoresistance in the Candidate Type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2

TL;DR

This study investigates the electronic properties and extremely large magnetoresistance of orthorhombic MoTe2, revealing unexpected three-dimensional electronic behavior and potential Lifshitz transitions, supported by experimental measurements and first-principles calculations.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the anisotropic magnetoresistance and electronic structure of Td-MoTe2, including a scaling relation and evidence of Lifshitz transitions, advancing understanding of Weyl semimetals.

Findings

Unexpected 3D electronic character with low mass anisotropy.

Evidence of Lifshitz transitions around 60-150 K.

Large magnetoresistance linked to electron-hole compensation and orbital texture.

Abstract

We performed the angle dependent magnetoresistance (MR), Hall effect measurements, the temperature dependent magneto-thermoelectric power (TEP) S(T) measurements, and the first-principles calculations to study the electronic properties of orthorhombic phase MoTe2 (Td-MoTe2), which was proposed to be electronically two-dimensional (2D). There are some interesting findings about Td-MoTe2: (1) A scaling approach {\epsilon}{\theta}=(sin2{\theta}+{\gamma}-2cos2{\theta})1/2 is applied, where {\theta} is the magnetic field angle with respect to the c axis of the crystal and {\gamma} is the mass anisotropy. Unexpectedly, the electronically 3D character with {\gamma} as low as 1.9 is observed in Td-MoTe2; (2) The possible Lifshitz transition and the following electronic structure change can be verified around T~150 K and T~60 K, which is supported by the evidence of the slop changing of the temperature dependence of TEP, the carrier density extracted from Hall resistivity and the onset temperature of {\gamma} obtained from the MR measurements. The extremely large MR effect in Td-MoTe2 could originate from the combination of the electron-hole compensation and a particular orbital texture on the electron pocket, which is supported by the calculations of electronic structure. Our results may provide a general scaling relation for the anisotropic MR and help to recognize the origins of the MR effect in other systems, such as the Weyl semimetals and the Dirac ones.