Negative differential resistance and quantum oscillations in FeSb_2 with embedded antimony

We present a systematical study on single crystalline FeSb2 using electrical transport and magnetic torque measurements at low temperatures. Nonlinear magnetic field dependence of Hall resistivity demonstrates a multi-carrier transport instinct of the electronic transport. Current-controlled negative differential resistance(CC-NDR) observed in currentvoltage characteristics below ～ 7 K is closely associated with the intrinsic transition ～ 5 K of FeSb2, which is, however,mediated by extrinsic current-induced Joule heating effect. The antimony crystallized in a preferred orientation within the FeSb2 lattice in the high-temperature synthesis process leaves its fingerprint in the de Haas-Van Alphen(dHvA) oscillations, and results in the regular angular dependence of the oscillating frequencies. Nevertheless, possible existence of intrinsic non-trivial states cannot be completely ruled out. Our findings call for further theoretical and experimental studies to explore novel physics on flux-free grown FeSb_2 crystals.

Quantization of the band at the surface of charge density wave material 2H-TaSe_(2)

By using angle-resolvea photoemission spectroscopy(ARPES) combined with the first-principies electronic structure calculations,we report the quantized states at the surface of a single crystal 2 H-TaSe_(2).We have observed sub-bands of quantized states at the three-dimensional Brillouin zone center due to a highly dispersive band with light effective mass along k_(z) direction.The quantized sub-bands shift upward towards E_(F) while the bulk band at Γ shifts downward with the decrease of temperature across charge density wave(CDW) formation.The band shifts could be intimately related to the CDW.While neither the two-dimensional Fermi-surface nesting nor purely strong electron-phonon coupling can explain the mechanism of CDW in 2 H-TaSe_(2),our experiment may ignite the interest in understanding the CDW mechanism in this family.

Physical Properties of Half-Heusler Antiferromagnet MnPtSn Single Crystal

We report the growth of ternary half-Heusler MnPtSn single crystals and detailed study on its structural and physical properties.MnPtSn single crystal has a larger lattice parameter than that in polycrystal and it exhibits antiferromagnetism with transition temperature TN at about 215 K,distinctly different from the ferromagnetism of MnPtSn polycrystal.Hall resistivity measurement indicates that the dominant carriers are hole-type and the nearly temperature-independent carrier concentration reaches about 2.86×10^22 cm^-3 at 5 K.Moreover,the carrier mobility is also rather low(4.7 cm^2·V^-1s^-1 at 5 K).The above results strongly suggest that the significant Mn/Sn anti-site defects,i.e.,the content of Mn in MnPtSn single crystal,play a vital role on structural,magnetic and transport properties.

Multiband nodeless superconductivity near the charge-density-wave quantum critical point in ZrTe(3-x)Sex

It was found that selenium doping can suppress the charge-density-wave（CDW） order and induce bulk superconductivity in ZrTe3. The observed superconducting dome suggests the existence of a CDW quantum critical point（QCP） in ZrTe3-xSex near x ≈ 0.04. To elucidate the superconducting state near the CDW QCP, we measure the thermal conductivity of two ZrTe（3-x）Sex single crystals（x = 0.044 and 0.051） down to 80 m K. For both samples, the residual linear term κ0/T at zero field is negligible, which is a clear evidence for nodeless superconducting gap. Furthermore, the field dependence of κ0/T manifests a multigap behavior. These results demonstrate multiple nodeless superconducting gaps in ZrTe（3-x）Sex,which indicates conventional superconductivity despite of the existence of a CDW QCP.