Signatures of the Adler–Bell–Jackiw chiral anomaly in a Weyl fermion semimetal

Weyl semimetals provide the realization of Weyl fermions in solid-state physics. Among all the physical phenomena that are enabled by Weyl semimetals, the chiral anomaly is the most unusual one. Here, we report signatures of the chiral anomaly in the magneto-transport measurements on the first Weyl semimetal TaAs. We show negative magnetoresistance under parallel electric and magnetic fields, that is, unlike most metals whose resistivity increases under an external magnetic field, we observe that our high mobility TaAs samples become more conductive as a magnetic field is applied along the direction of the current for certain ranges of the field strength. We present systematically detailed data and careful…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Award: DE-FG-02-05ER46200
• GA
  Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

  Award: GBMF4547
• PU
  Princeton University

  Award: GBMF4547
• UO
  University of Central Florida
• DL
  Diamond Light Source
• NR
  National Research Foundation

  Award: NRF-NRFF2013-03
• NR
  National Research Foundation Singapore

  Award: NRF-NRFF2013-03
• NN
  National Natural Science Foundation of China

  Awards: 11374020, 11574127
• HU
  Huazhong University of Science and Technology
• OO
  Office of Science
• NK
  National Key Research and Development Program of China

  Awards: 2014CB239302, 2013CB921901
• BE
  Basic Energy Sciences

  Award: DE-FG-02-05ER46200
• LD
  Laboratory Directed Research and Development
• LA
  Los Alamos National Laboratory