Butterfly-Like Anisotropic Magnetoresistance and Angle-Dependent Berry Phase in a Type-II Weyl Semimetal WP2

Abstract

The Weyl semimetal has emerged as a new topologically nontrivial phase of matter, hosting low-energy excitations of massless Weyl fermions. Here, we present a comprehensive study of a type-II Weyl semimetal WP2. Transport studies show a butterfly-like magnetoresistance at low temperature, reflecting the anisotropy of the electron Fermi surfaces. This four-lobed feature gradually evolves into a two-lobed variant with an increase in temperature, mainly due to the reduced relative contribution of electron Fermi surfaces compared to hole Fermi surfaces for magnetoresistance. Moreover, an angle-dependent Berry phase is also discovered, based on quantum oscillations, which is ascribed to the effective manipulation of extremal Fermi orbits by the magnetic field to feel nearby topological singularities in the momentum space. The revealed topological character and anisotropic Fermi surfaces of the WP2 substantially enrich the physical properties of Weyl semimetals, and show great promises in terms of potential topological electronic and Fermitronic device applications.