Influence of magnetization anisotropy on angular magnetoresistance in the antiferromagnetic topological semimetal HoSb

Abstract

Magnetic rare-earth monopnictides have attracted a great deal of interest, not only because of the nontrivial topological electronic states but also due to the extremely large magnetoresistance. In this paper, we report the angular-dependent magnetization and magnetoresistance of the antiferromagnetic topological semimetal HoSb. At elevated temperatures, the angular magnetoresistance displays minima and maxima around $n\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ and $(2n+1)\ensuremath{\pi}/4$ ($n=0$, 1, 2, and 3), respectively. At low temperatures (\ensuremath{\sim}6 K), both the magnetoresistance and magnetization showcase strong angular dependence. Different from those of other rare-earth monopnictides, HoSb's angular magnetoresistance exhibits extra minima between $n\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ and $(2n+1)\ensuremath{\pi}/4$, and between $(2n+1)\ensuremath{\pi}/4$ and $(n+1)\ensuremath{\pi}/2$ ($n=0$, 1, 2, and 3), around which the magnetic phase transitions from ferromagnetic to HoP-type antiferromagnetic state, and from HoP-type antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic state occur, suggesting the close interplay between conduction electrons and magnetism. Several possible causes have been carefully discussed for these unexpected phenomena. Our findings reveal the crucial role of magnetization anisotropy on the angular magnetoresistance in magnetic rare-earth monopnictides, and may provide a paradigm for studying the magnetization control of magnetoresistance anisotropy in other magnetic semimetals.