Evidence of Electron-Hole Imbalance in WTe2 from High-Resolution Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to reveal that WTe2 exhibits electron-hole imbalance over most temperatures, challenging the perfect compensation theory for its giant magnetoresistance.

Contribution

The paper provides the first detailed electronic structure analysis of WTe2 showing temperature-dependent electron and hole concentrations, and identifies a flat band influencing transport properties.

Findings

Electron concentration increases with temperature.

Hole concentration decreases with temperature.

Electron-hole imbalance is prevalent across most temperatures.

Abstract

WTe2 has attracted a great deal of attention because it exhibits extremely large and nonsaturating magnetoresistance. The underlying origin of such a giant magnetoresistance is still under debate. Utilizing laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy with high energy and momentum resolutions, we reveal the complete electronic structure of WTe2. This makes it possible to determine accurately the electron and hole concentrations and their temperature dependence. We find that, with increasing the temperature, the overall electron concentration increases while the total hole concentration decreases. It indicates that the electron-hole compensation, if it exists, can only occur in a narrow temperature range, and in most of the temperature range there is an electron-hole imbalance. Our results are not consistent with the perfect electron-hole compensation picture that is commonly considered to be the cause of the unusual magnetoresistance in WTe2. We identified a flat band near the Brillouin zone center that is close to the Fermi level and exhibits a pronounced temperature dependence. Such a flat band can play an important role in dictating the transport properties of WTe2. Our results provide new insight on understanding the origin of the unusual magnetoresistance in WTe2.