Magnetoresistance and scaling laws in type-II Weyl semimetal WP2

Abstract

Topological materials with extremely large magnetoresistance exhibit a prognostic feature of resistivity turn-on behaviour. This occurs when the temperature dependence of resistivity ρ(T) changes from metallic to semiconducting characteristics on application of external magnetic field above a threshold value. Here, we study the magneto-transport properties of type-II Weyl Semimetal WP2. The zero field electrical resistivity in the low temperature region indicates the dominant electron-phonon scattering. The saturation in ρ(T) curves under all applied magnetic fields are observed at low temperatures. A minimum in resistivity at ~40K is revealed in the temperature derivative of resistivity curves, which implies onset of field induced turn-on effect. Furthermore, a non-saturating linear magnetoresistance (MR) is observed above ~ 5 T which is generally assigned to linear energy dispersion near the Weyl nodes. However, Kohler's scaling fits the data well with resistivity ρ~(B/ρ0)m that implicitly explains the turn-on behaviour and the resistivity minimum. Thus, semi-classical theories of magnetoresistance are consistent with our data without the need to invoke topological surface states. Our findings in this work provides an alternative basis to understand the temperature dependence of magnetoresistance in topological materials.