Resistivity plateau and extremely large magnetoresistance in NbAs2 and TaAs2.

In topological insulators (TIs), metallic surface conductance saturates the insulating bulk resistance with decreasing temperature, resulting in resistivity plateau at low temperatures as a transport signature originating from metallic surface modes protected by time reversal symmetry (TRS). Such a characteristic has been found in several materials including Bi2Te2Se, SmB6 etc. Recently, similar behavior has been observed in metallic compound LaSb, accompanying an extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR). Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) oscillation at low temperatures further confirms the metallic behavior of the plateau region under magnetic fields. LaSb [Tafti et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 272 (2015)] has been proposed by the authors as a possible topological semimetal (TSM), while negative magnetoresistance is absent at this moment. Here, high quality single crystals of NbAs2/TaAs2 with inversion symmetry have been grown, and the resistivity under magnetic field is systematically investigated. Both of them exhibit metallic behavior under zero magnetic field, and a metal-to-insulator transition occurs when a nonzero magnetic field is applied, resulting in XMR (1.0×105% for NbAs2 and 7.3×105% for TaAs2 at 2.5 K and 14 T). With temperature decreased, a resistivity plateau emerges after the insulatorlike regime, and SdH oscillation has also been observed in NbAs2 and TaAs2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]