Giant anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect in the Dirac semimetal Cd 3 As 2

Chiral anomaly is a purely quantum mechanical phenomenon of massless Weyl fermions in quantum field theory. Its manifestation in condensed matter has been extensively studied theoretically and experimentally. The negative magnetoresistance in which a resistance decreases with increasing external applied magnetic field B with non-zero E.B is widely regarded as a signature of chiral anomaly in Weyl/Dirac semimetals, however, it encounters some challenges as the negative magnetoresistance can also be produced by other mechanisms in topological materials and semiconductors with strong spin-orbit coupling. Here we report the experimental observation in the Dirac semimetal Cd3As2 of giant anisotropic magnetoresistance and planar Hall effect. The relative anisotropic magnetoresistance is negative and up to -68% at 2 K and 10 Tesla. The chiral anomaly of Weyl fermions can account for the high anisotropy and the minus sign in this isotropic and paramagnetic material. In addition to the negative magnetoresistance, this observation provides one more evidence to confirm the chiral anomaly in topological semimetals in a different perspective.

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