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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Importance of the semimetallic state for the quantum Hall effect in HfTe5

M. M. Piva1,*, R. Wawrzyńczak1, Nitesh Kumar1,2, L. O. Kutelak3,1, G. A. Lombardi3, R. D. dos Reis3, C. Felser1, and M. Nicklas1,†

  • 1Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, Nöthnitzer Straße 40, D-01187 Dresden, Germany
  • 2S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Salt Lake City, Kolkata 700 106, India
  • 3Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS), Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials (CNPEM), Campinas 13083-970, SP, Brazil

  • *Mario.Piva@cpfs.mpg.de
  • †Michael.Nicklas@cpfs.mpg.de
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Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L041202 – Published 29 April, 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.8.L041202

Abstract

At ambient pressure, HfTe5 is a material at the boundary between a weak and a strong topological phase, which can be tuned by changes in its crystalline structure or by the application of high magnetic fields. It exhibits a Lifshitz transition upon cooling, and three-dimensional (3D) quantum Hall effect (QHE) plateaus can be observed at low temperatures. Here, we have investigated the electrical transport properties of HfTe5 under hydrostatic pressure up to 3 GPa. We find a pressure-induced crossover from a semimetallic phase at low pressures to an insulating phase at about 1.5 GPa. Our data suggest the presence of a pressure-induced Lifshitz transition at low temperatures within the insulating phase around 2 GPa. The quasi-3D QHE is confined to the low-pressure region in the semimetallic phase. This reveals the importance of the semimetallic ground state for the emergence of the QHE in HfTe5 and thus favors a scenario based on a low carrier density metal in the quantum limit for the observed signatures of the quasiquantized 3D QHE.

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Phys. Rev. Materials 8, L041202– Published 29 April, 2024
  • Received 1 March 2024
  • Accepted 15 April 2024
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Open access publication funded by Max Planck Society.

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