Uniaxial strain effects on the Fermi surface and quantum mobility of the Dirac nodal-line semimetal ZrSiS

TL;DR

This study investigates how uniaxial strain influences the Fermi surface topology and quantum mobility in ZrSiS, revealing that tensile strain reduces quantum mobility and alters quantum oscillation features.

Contribution

It introduces uniaxial strain as a tuning parameter to modify the Fermi surface and quantum excitations in ZrSiS, providing new insights into strain effects on Dirac nodal-line semimetals.

Findings

Tensile strain weakens the quantum oscillation peaks.

Quantum mobility decreases with increasing tensile strain.

Dingle temperature increases as the $c/a$ ratio decreases.

Abstract

ZrSiS has been identified as an exemplary Dirac nodal-line semimetal, in which the Dirac band crossings extend along a closed loop in momentum space. Recently, the topology of the Fermi surface of ZrSiS was uncovered in great detail by quantum oscillation studies. For a magnetic field along the tetragonal $c$ axis, a rich frequency spectrum was observed stemming from the principal electron and hole pockets, and multiple magnetic breakdown orbits. In this work we use uniaxial strain as a tuning parameter for the Fermi surface and the low energy excitations. We measure the magnetoresistance of a single crystal under tensile (up to 0.34 %) and compressive (up to -0.28 %) strain exerted along the $a$ axis and in magnetic fields up to 30 T. We observe a systematic weakening of the peak structure in the Shubnikov-de Haas frequency spectrum upon changing from compressive to tensile strain. This effect may be explained by a decrease in the effective quantum mobility upon decreasing the $c/a$ ratio, which is corroborated by a concurrent increase in the Dingle temperature.