Giant magnetoresistance, Fermi surface topology, Shoenberg effect and vanishing quantum oscillations in type-II Dirac semimetal candidates MoSi$_2$ and WSi$_2$

TL;DR

This study combines theoretical and experimental approaches to analyze the electronic structure and Fermi surface topology of MoSi₂ and WSi₂, revealing their nearly compensated semimetal nature, giant magnetoresistance, and the presence of type-II Dirac cones.

Contribution

The paper provides the first comprehensive analysis of the Fermi surface topology and quantum oscillations in MoSi₂ and WSi₂, identifying their compensated semimetallic character and Dirac cones.

Findings

Fermi surface consists of 3D dumbbell-shaped and rosette-shaped pockets.

Giant magnetoresistance of 10^4% and 10^5% observed.

Shoenberg effect persists up to 25 K in MoSi₂ and 12 K in WSi₂.

Abstract

We performed comprehensive theoretical and experimental studies of the electronic structure and the Fermi surface topology of two novel quantum materials, MoSi$_2$ and WSi$_2$. The theoretical predictions of the electronic structure in the vicinity of the Fermi level was verified experimentally by thorough analysis of the observed quantum oscillations in both electrical resistivity and magnetostriction. We established that the Fermi surface sheets in MoSi$_2$ and WSi$_2$ consist of 3D dumbbell-shaped hole-like pockets and rosette-shaped electron-like pockets, with nearly equal volumes. Based on this finding, both materials were characterized as almost perfectly compensated semimetals. In conjunction, the magnetoresistance attains giant values of $10^4$ and $10^5\,\%$ for WSi$_2$ and MoSi$_2$, respectively. In turn, the anisotropic magnetoresistance achieves $-95$ and $-98\,\%$ at $T=2\,$K and in $B=14\,$T for WSi$_2$ and MoSi$_2$, respectively. Furthermore, for both compounds we observed the Shoenberg effect in their Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations that persisted at as high temperature as $T=25\,$K in MoSi$_2$ and $T=12\,$K in WSi$_2$. In addition, we found for MoSi$_2$ a rarely observed spin-zero phenomenon. Remarkably, the electronic structure calculations revealed type-II Dirac cones located near 480 meV and 710 meV above the Fermi level in MoSi$_2$ and WSi$_2$, respectively.