Extremely large magnetoresistance and Kohler's rule in PdSn4: a complete study of thermodynamic, transport and band structure properties

TL;DR

This study investigates the physical and electronic properties of PdSn4, revealing that its large magnetoresistance is not due to carrier compensation or surface states, but is characterized by Kohler's rule scaling across various conditions.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of PdSn4's thermodynamic, transport, and band structure properties, highlighting the role of Kohler's rule in understanding its magnetoresistance.

Findings

PdSn4 exhibits large magnetoresistance similar to PtSn4.

The Dirac surface state in PdSn4 is gapped out compared to PtSn4.

Kohler's rule scaling applies across all tested temperatures and fields.

Abstract

The recently discovered material PtSn$_4$ is known to exhibit extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) that also manifests Dirac arc nodes on the surface. PdSn$_4$ is isostructure to PtSn$_4$ with same electron count. We report on the physical properties of high quality single crystals of PdSn$_4$ including specific heat, temperature and magnetic field dependent resistivity and magnetization, and electronic band structure properties obtained from angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). We observe that PdSn$_4$ has physical properties that are qualitatively similar to those of PtSn$_4$, but find also pronounced differences. Importantly, the Dirac arc node surface state of PtSn$_4$ is gapped out for PdSn$_4$. By comparing these similar compounds, we address the origin of the extremely large magnetoresistance in PdSn$_4$ and PtSn$_4$; based on detailed analysis of the magnetoresistivity, $\rho(H,T)$, we conclude that neither carrier compensation nor the Dirac arc node surface state are primary reason for the extremely large magnetoresistance. On the other hand, we find that surprisingly Kohler's rule scaling of the mangnetoresistance, which describes a self-similarity of the field induced orbital electronic motion across different length scales and is derived for a simple electronic response of metals to applied in a magnetic field is obeyed over the full range of temperatures and field strengths that we explore.