Zeeman splitting and dynamical mass generation in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27515493.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12516 and PMC identifier 4990656.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Dirac semimetals have attracted extensive attentions in recent years. It has been theoretically suggested that many-body interactions may drive exotic phase transitions, spontaneously generating a Dirac mass for the nominally massless Dirac electrons. So far, signature of interaction-driven transition has been lacking. In this work, we report high-magnetic-field transport measurements of the Dirac semimetal candidate ZrTe5. Owing to the large g factor in ZrTe5, the Zeeman splitting can be observed at magnetic field as low as 3 T. Most prominently, high pulsed magnetic field up to 60 T drives the system into the ultra-quantum limit, where we observe abrupt changes in the magnetoresistance, indicating field-induced phase transitions. This is interpreted as an interaction-induced spontaneous mass generation of the Dirac fermions, which bears resemblance to the dynamical mass generation of nucleons in high-energy physics. Our work establishes Dirac semimetals as ideal platforms for investigating emerging correlation effects in topological matters.