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Owing to the specific topological states in nodal-line semimetals, novel topological superconductivity is expected to emerge in these systems. In this letter, by combination of the first-principles calculations and resistivity, susceptibility and specific heat measurements, we demonstrate that La$_3$Pt$_3$Bi$_4$ is a topologically nontrivial nodal-ring semimetal protected by the gliding-mirror symmetry even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. Meanwhile, we discover bulk superconductivity with a transition temperature of $\sim$1.1 K, and an upper critical field of $\sim$0.41 T. These findings demonstrate that La$_3$Pt$_3$Bi$_4$ provides a material platform for studying novel superconductivity in the nodal-ring system.

In this article, the superconducting and normal state properties of TlBi$_2$ with the AlB$_2$-type structure were studied by the resistivity, magnetization and specific heat measurements. It was found that bulk superconductivity with $T_{C}$ = 6.2 K emerges in TlBi$_2$, which is a phonon-mediated $s$-wave superconductor with a strong electron-phonon coupling ($\lambda$$_{ep}$ = 1.38) and a large superconducting gap ($\Delta_{0}$/$k_{B}T_{C}$ = 2.25). We found that the $\rho$($T$) exhibits an unusual $T$-linear dependence above 50 K, and can be well described by the Fermi-liquid theory below 20 K. Interestingly, its Kadowaki-Woods ratio $A/\gamma^{2}$ [9.2$\times$10$^{-5}$ $\mu\Omega$ cm(mol K$^{2}$/mJ)$^{2}$] is unexpectedly one order of magnitude larger than that obtained in many heavy Fermi compounds, although the electron correlation is not so strong., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Compounds with the A15 structure have attracted extensive attention due to their superconductivity and nontrivial topological band structure. We have successfully grown Nb$_3$Sb single crystals with a A15 structure and systematically measured the longitudinal resistivity, Hall resistivity and quantum oscillations in magnetization. Similar to other topological trivial/nontrivial semimetals, Nb$_3$Sb, exhibits large magnetoresistance (MR) at low temperatures (717$\%$, 2 K and 9 T), unsaturating quadratic field dependence of MR and up-turn behavior in $\rho_{xx}$(\emph{T}) curves under magnetic field, which is considered to result from a perfect hole-electron compensation, as evidenced by the Hall resistivity measurements. The nonzero Berry phase obtained from the de-Hass van Alphen (dHvA) oscillations demonstrates that Nb$_3$Sb is topologically nontrivial. These results indicate that Nb$_{3}$Sb superconductor is also a semimetal with large MR and nontrivial Berry phase, indicating that Nb$_{3}$Sb may be another platform to search for Majorana zero-energy mode., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2007.04814, arXiv:2104.03799

The extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) observed in many topologically nontrivial and trivial semimetals has attracted much attention in relation to its underlying physical mechanism. In this paper, by combining the band structure and Fermi surface (FS) calculations with the Hall resistivity and de Haas-Van Alphen (dHvA) oscillation measurements, we studied the anisotropy of magnetoresistance (MR) of ReO$_3$ with a simple cubic structure, an "ordinary" nonmagnetic metal considered previously. We found that ReO$_3$ exhibits almost all the characteristics of XMR semimetals: the nearly quadratic field dependence of MR, a field-induced upturn in resistivity followed by a plateau at low temperatures, high mobilities of charge carriers. It was found that for magnetic field \emph{H} applied along the \emph{c} axis, the MR exhibits an unsaturated \emph{H}$^{1.75}$ dependence, which was argued to arise from the complete carrier compensation supported by the Hall resistivity measurements. For \emph{H} applied along the direction of 15$^\circ$ relative to the \emph{c} axis, an unsaturated \emph{H}$^{1.90}$ dependence of MR up to 9.43~$\times$~$10^3$$\%$ at 10~K and 9~T was observed, which was explained by the existence of electron open orbits extending along the $k_{x}$ direction. Two mechanisms responsible for XMR observed usually in the semimetals occur also in the simple metal ReO$_3$ due to its peculiar FS (two closed electron pockets and one open electron pocket), once again indicating that the details of FS topology are a key factor for the observed XMR in materials., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2007.04814

We performed calculations of the electronic band structure and the Fermi surface as well as measured the longitudinal resistivity $\rho_{xx}(T,H)$, Hall resistivity $\rho_{xy}(T,H)$, and magnetic susceptibility as a function of temperature and various magnetic fields for VAs$_2$ with a monoclinic crystal structure. The band structure calculations show that VAs$_2$ is a nodal-line semimetal when spin-orbit coupling is ignored. The emergence of a minimum at around 11 K in $\rho_{xx}(T)$ measured at $H$ = 0 demonstrates that an additional magnetic impurity (V$^{4+}$, $S$ = 1/2) occurs in VAs$_2$ single crystals, evidenced by both the fitting of $\rho_{xx}(T)$ data and the susceptibility measurements. It was found that a large positive magnetoresistance (MR) reaching 649\% at 10 K and 9 T, its nearly quadratic field dependence, and a field-induced up-turn behavior of $\rho_{xx}(T)$ emerge also in VAs$_2$, although MR is not so large due to the existence of additional scattering compared with other topological nontrival/trival semimetals. The observed properties are attributed to a perfect charge-carrier compensation, which is evidenced by both calculations relying on the Fermi surface and the Hall resistivity measurements. These results indicate that the compounds containing V ($3d^3 4s^2$) element as a platform for studying the influence of magnetic impurities to the topological properties., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2007.04814

A feasible strategy to realize the Majorana fermions is searching for a simple compound with both bulk superconductivity and Dirac surface states. In this paper, we performed calculations of electronic band structure, the Fermi surface and surface states, as well as measured the resistivity, magnetization, specific heat for TlSb compound with a CsCl-type structure. The band structure calculations show that TlSb is a Dirac semimetal when spin-orbit coupling is taken into account. Meanwhile, we first found that TlSb is a type-II superconductor with $T_c$ = 4.38 K, $H_{c1}$(0) = 148 Oe, $H_{c2}$(0) = 1.12 T and $\kappa_{GL}$ = 10.6, and confirmed it to be a moderately coupled s-wave superconductor. Although we can not determine which bands near the Fermi level $E_F$ to be responsible for superconductivity, its coexistence with the topological surface states implies that TlSb compound may be a simple material platform to realize the fault-tolerant quantum computations., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

We performed calculations of the electronic band structure and the Fermi surface as well as measured the longitudinal resistivity rhoxx(T,H), Hall resistivity rhoxy(T,H) and quantum oscillations of the magnetization as a function of temperature at various magnetic fields for MoO2 with monoclinic crystal structure. The band structure calculations show that MoO2 is a nodal-line semimetal when spin-orbit coupling is ignored. It was found that a large magnetoresistance reaching 5.03x10^4% at 2 K and 9 T, its nearly quadratic field dependence and a field-induced up-turn behavior of rhoxx(T), the characteristics common for many topologically non-trivial as well as trivial semimetals, emerge also in MoO2. The observed properties are attributed to a perfect charge-carrier compensation, evidenced by both calculations relying on the Fermi surface topology and the Hall resistivity measurements. Both the observation of negative magnetoresistance for magnetic field along the current direction and the non-zero Berry phase in de Haas-van Alphen measurements indicate that pairs of Weyl points appear in MoO2, which may be due to the crystal symmetry breaking. These results highlight MoO2 as a new platform materials for studying the topological properties of oxides., Comment: 8 papges, 7 figures

In this paper, the magnetic and transport properties were systematically studied for EuAg$_4$As$_2$ single crystals, crystallizing in a centrosymmetric trigonal CaCu$_4$P$_2$ type structure. It was confirmed that two magnetic transitions occur at $\textit{T}$$_{N1}$ = 10 K and $\textit{T}$$_{N2}$ = 15 K, respectively. With the increasing field, the two transitions are noticeably driven to lower temperature. At low temperatures, applying a magnetic field in the $\textit{ab}$ plane induces two successive metamagnetic transitions. For both $\textit{H}$ $\parallel$ $\textit{ab}$ and $\textit{H}$ $\parallel$ $\textit{c}$, EuAg$_4$As$_2$ shows a positive, unexpected large magnetoresistance (up to 202\%) at low fields below 10 K, and a large negative magnetoresistance (up to -78\%) at high fields/intermediate temperatures. Such anomalous field dependence of magnetoresistance may have potential application in the future magnetic sensors. Finally, the magnetic phase diagrams of EuAg$_{4}$As$_{2}$ were constructed for both $\textit{H}$ $\parallel$ $\textit{ab}$ and $\textit{H}$ $\parallel$ $\textit{c}$.

Multiple mechanisms for extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) found in many topologically nontrivial/trivial semimetals have been theoretically proposed, but experimentally it is unclear which mechanism is responsible in a particular sample. In this article, by the combination of band structure calculations, numerical simulations of magnetoresistance (MR), Hall resistivity and de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) oscillation measurements, we studied the MR anisotropy of SiP$_{2}$ which is verified to be a topologically trivial, incomplete compensation semimetal. It was found that as magnetic field, $H$, is applied along the $a$ axis, the MR exhibits an unsaturated nearly linear $H$ dependence, which was argued to arise from incomplete carriers compensation. For the $H$ $\parallel$ [101] orientation, an unsaturated nearly quadratic $H$ dependence of MR up to 5.88 $\times$ 10$^{4}$$\%$ (at 1.8 K, 31.2 T) and field-induced up-turn behavior in resistivity were observed, which was suggested due to the existence of hole open orbits extending along the $k_{x}$ direction. Good agreement of the experimental results with the simulations based on the calculated Fermi surface (FS) indicates that the topology of FS plays an important role in its MR., Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures

Quasiparticle interference (QPI) of the electronic states has been widely applied in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to analyze the electronic band structure of materials. Single-defect induced QPI reveals defect-dependent interaction between a single atomic defect and electronic states, which deserves special attention. Due to the weak signal of single-defect-induced QPI, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is relatively low in a standard two-dimensional QPI measurement. In this paper, we introduce a projective quasiparticle interference (PQPI) method, in which a one-dimensional measurement is taken along high-symmetry directions centered on a specified defect. We apply the PQPI method to a topological nodal-line semimetal ZrSiS. We focus on two special types of atomic defects that scatter the surface and bulk electronic bands. With enhanced SNR in PQPI, the energy dispersions are clearly resolved along high symmetry directions. We discuss the defect-dependent scattering of bulk bands with the non-symmorphic symmetry-enforced selection rules. Furthermore, an energy shift of the surface floating band is observed and a new branch of energy dispersion (q6) is resolved. This PQPI method can be applied to other complex materials to explore defect-dependent interactions in the future., Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, supplementary 3 pages, 2 figures

We present the results of a study of the vortex lattice (VL) of the nickel chalcogenide superconductor TlNi2Se2, using small angle neutron scattering. This superconductor has the same crystal symmetry as the iron arsenide materials. Previous work points to it being a two-gap superconductor, with an unknown pairing mechanism. No structural transitions in the vortex lattice are seen in the phase diagram, arguing against d-wave gap symmetry. Empirical fits of the temperature-dependence of the form factor and penetration depth rule out a simple s-wave model, supporting the presence of nodes in the gap function. The variation of the VL opening angle with field is consistent with earlier reports of of multiple gaps.

Extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) was recently discovered in many non-magnetic materials, while its underlying mechanism remains poorly understood due to the complex electronic structure of these materials. Here, we report an investigation of the $\alpha$-phase WP$_2$, a topologically trivial semimetal with monoclinic crystal structure (C2/m), which contrasts to the recently discovered robust type-II Weyl semimetal phase in $\beta$-WP$_2$. We found that $\alpha$-WP$_2$ exhibits almost all the characteristics of XMR materials: the near-quadratic field dependence of MR, a field-induced up-turn in resistivity following by a plateau at low temperature, which can be understood by the compensation effect, and high mobility of carriers confirmed by our Hall effect measurements. It was also found that the normalized MRs under different magnetic fields has the same temperature dependence in $\alpha$-WP$_2$, the Kohler scaling law can describe the MR data in a wide temperature range, and there is no obvious change in the anisotropic parameter $\gamma$ value with temperature. The resistance polar diagram has a peanut shape when field is rotated in $\textit{ac}$ plane, which can be understood by the anisotropy of Fermi surface. These results indicate that both field-induced-gap and temperature-induced Lifshitz transition are not the origin of up-turn in resistivity in the $\alpha$-WP$_2$ semimetal. Our findings establish $\alpha$-WP$_2$ as a new reference material for exploring the XMR phenomena., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures

The physical properties of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ were characterized by electrical resistivity, magnetization and specific heat measurements. We found that the stoichiometric CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ compound is a superconductor with a transition temperature \textit{T$_{c}$}=2.7K. A large Sommerfeld coefficient $\gamma$$_{n}$ ($\sim$77.90 mJ/mol$\cdot$K$^{-2}$), was obtained from the normal state electronic specific heat. However, the Kadowaki-Woods ratio of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ was estimated to be about 0.041$\times$10$^{-5}$ $\mu\Omega$$\cdot$cm(mol$\cdot$K/mJ)$^{2}$, indicating the absence of strong electron-electron correlations in this compound. In the superconducting state, we found that the zero-field electronic specific heat data, $C_{es}(T)$ (0.5K $\leq$ T $<$ 2.6K), can be well fitted with a two-gap BCS model. The comparison with the results of the density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggested that the large $\gamma$$_{n}$ in the nickel-selenide superconductors may be related to the large Density of States (DOS) at the fermi surface., Comment: 5 pagers, 4 figures

After growing successfully TaP single crystal, we measured its longitudinal resistivity (rhoxx) and Hall resistivity (rhoyx) at magnetic fields up to 9T in the temperature range of 2-300K. It was found that at 2K its magnetoresistivity (MR) reaches to 328000 percent, at 300K to 176 percent at 8T, and both do not appear saturation. We confirmed that TaP is indeed a low carrier concentration, hole-electron compensated semimetal, with a high mobility of hole muh=371000 cm2V-1s-1, and found that a magnetic-field-induced metal-insulator transition occurs at room temperature. Remarkably, as a magnetic field (H) is applied in parallel to the electric field (E), the negative MR due to chiral anomaly is observed, and reaches to -3000 percent at 9T without any signature of saturation, too, which distinguishes with other Weyl semimetals (WSMs). The analysis on the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations superimposing on the MR reveals that a nontrivial Berry phase with strong offset of 0.3958 realizes in TaP, which is the characteristic feature of the charge carriers enclosing a Weyl nodes. These results indicate that TaP is a promising candidate not only for revealing fundamental physics of the WSM state but also for some novel applications., Comment: 5 papes, 4 figures

Using high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations, we characterize superconducting TlNi$_2$Se$_2$ as a material with weak electronic Coulomb correlations leading to a bandwidth renormalization of 1.4. We identify a camelback-shaped band, whose energetic position strongly depends on the selenium height. While this feature is universal in transition metal pnictides, in TlNi$_2$Se$_2$ it lies in the immediate vicinity of the Fermi level, giving rise to a pronounced van Hove singularity. The resulting heavy band mass resolves the apparent puzzle of a large normal-state specific heat coefficient (Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 207001) in this weakly correlated compound., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures