Nontrivial topology of bulk HgSe from the study of cyclotron effective mass, electron mobility and phase shift of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations

Abstract

In this paper, the authors report the results of an experimental study of effective mass, electron mobility and phase shift of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations of transverse magnetoresistance in an extended electron concentration region from 8.8 × 1015 cm−3 to 4.3 × 1018 cm−3 in single crystals of mercury selenide. The revealed features indicate that Weyl semimetal phase may exist in HgSe at low electron density. The most significant result is the discovery of an abrupt change of Berry phase at electron concentration 2 × 1018 cm−3, which we explain in terms of a manifestation of topological Lifshitz transition in HgSe that occurs by tuning Fermi energy via doping.