Journal Article

Quasilinear quantum magnetoresistance in pressure-induced nonsymmorphic superconductor chromium arsenide

Niu, Q., Yanase, Y., Yu, W. C., Matsuoka, E., Sugawara, H., Goh, Swee K., Lim, Z. L., Kotegawa, H., Tou, H., Yip, K. Y.

2017

Overview

In conventional metals, modification of electron trajectories under magnetic field gives rise to a magnetoresistance that varies quadratically at low field, followed by a saturation at high field for closed orbits on the Fermi surface. Deviations from the conventional behaviour, for example, the observation of a linear magnetoresistance, or a non-saturating magnetoresistance, have been attributed to exotic electron scattering mechanisms. Recently, linear magnetoresistance has been observed in many Dirac materials, in which the electron–electron correlation is relatively weak. The strongly correlated helimagnet CrAs undergoes a quantum phase transition to a nonmagnetic superconductor under pressure. Here we observe, near the magnetic instability, a large and non-saturating quasilinear magnetoresistance from the upper critical field to 14 T at low temperatures. We show that the quasilinear magnetoresistance may arise from an intricate interplay between a nontrivial band crossing protected by nonsymmorphic crystal symmetry and strong magnetic fluctuations. The electronic structure of the helimagnet CrAs is unusual due to its nonsymmorphic crystal symmetry. Here, the authors observe quasilinear magnetoresistance close to a pressure-driven superconducting transition, which may arise from the interaction of the band structure and magnetic fluctuations.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 639/766/119/1003 / 639/766/119/995 / Chromium / Humanities and Social Sciences / Low temperature / Magnetic fields / multidisciplinary / Phase transitions / Physics / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Symmetry / Temperature