Magnetotransport studies of the Sb square-net compound LaAgSb$_2$ under high pressure and rotating magnetic fields

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetotransport properties of LaAgSb$_2$, a square-net-layered material, under high pressure and rotating magnetic fields, revealing a two-dimensional Fermi surface and anisotropic Dirac bands influencing magnetoresistance.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of pressure-induced phase transitions and angular-dependent magnetotransport in LaAgSb$_2$, combining experimental and theoretical approaches.

Findings

Suppression of charge density waves above 3.2 GPa

Observation of butterfly-shaped magnetoresistance patterns

Fermi surface modeled to explain experimental magnetotransport data

Abstract

Square-net-layered materials have attracted attention as an extended research platform of Dirac fermions and of exotic magneto-transport phenomena. In this study, we investigated the magneto-transport properties of LaAgSb$_2$, which has Sb-square-net layers and shows charge density wave (CDW) transitions at ambient pressure. The application of pressure suppresses the CDWs, and above a pressure of 3.2 GPa, a disordered phase with no CDWs is realized. By utilizing a mechanical rotator combined with a high-pressure cell, we observed the angular dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation up to 3.5 GPa and confirmed the notable two-dimensional nature of the Fermi surface. In the disordered phase, we also observed a remarkable field-angular-dependent magnetoresistance (MR), which exhibited a "butterfly-like" polar pattern. To understand these results, we theoretically calculated the Fermi surface and conductivity tensor at the disordered phase. We showed that the SdH frequency and Hall coefficient calculated based on the present Fermi surface model agree well with the experiment. The transport properties in the disordered phase are mostly dominated by the anisotropic Dirac band, which has the highest conductivity owing to linear energy dispersions. We also proposed that momentum-dependent relaxation time plays an important role in the large transverse MR and negative longitudinal MR in the disordered phase, which is experimentally supported by the considerable violation of Kohler's scaling rule. Although quantitatively complete reproduction was not achieved, the calculation showed that the elemental features of the butterfly MR could be reasonably explained as the geometrical effect of the Fermi surface.