Fermi surface and nested magnetic breakdown in WTe2

TL;DR

This study combines experimental SdH measurements with DFT calculations to accurately map WTe2's Fermi surface, revealing magnetic breakdown phenomena driven by impurity damping, advancing understanding of its electronic properties.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and theoretical approach to precisely determine the Fermi surface of WTe2, highlighting the role of impurity damping in magnetic breakdown.

Findings

Accurate Fermi surface mapping of WTe2 using SdH and DFT with Hubbard U.

Observation of magnetic breakdown explained by nested Fermi surface model.

Magnetic breakdown onset is controlled by impurity damping, not magnetic field strength.

Abstract

We report a detailed Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) study on the Weyl type-II semimetal WTe2 in magnetic fields up to 29 T. By using the SdH results to guide our density functional theory calculations, we are able to accurately determine its Fermi surface by employing a moderate Hubbard U term, which is an essential step in explaining the unusual electronic properties of this much studied material. In addition to the fundamental orbits, we observe magnetic breakdown, which can consistently be explained within the model of a Russian-doll-nested Fermi surface of electron and hole pockets. The onset of magnetic breakdown in WTe2 is solely determined by impurity damping in contrast to magnetic breakdown scenarios in other metallic systems.