Zeeman splitting and dynamical mass generation in Dirac semimetal ZrTe5

• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms12516
• Publication Date: 2016-08-12T10:06:16Z
• Authors: Yanwen Liu; Xiang Yuan; Cheng Zhang; Zhao Jin; Awadhesh Narayan; Chen Luo; Zhigang Chen; Lei Yang; Jin Zou; Xing Wu; Stefano Sanvito; Zhengcai Xia; Liang Li; Zhong Wang; Faxian Xiu
• Keywords: Mass generation; Massless particle; Landau quantization

Dirac semimetals have attracted extensive attentions in recent years. It has been theoretically suggested that many-body interactions may drive exotic phase transitions, spontaneously generating a mass for the nominally massless electrons. So far, signature of interaction-driven transition lacking. In this work, we report high-magnetic-field transport measurements semimetal candidate ZrTe5. Owing to large g factor ZrTe5, Zeeman splitting can be observed at magnetic field as low 3 T. Most prominently, high pulsed up 60 T drives system into ultra-quantum limit, where observe abrupt changes magnetoresistance, indicating field-induced transitions. This is interpreted an interaction-induced spontaneous generation fermions, which bears resemblance dynamical nucleons high-energy physics. Our work establishes ideal platforms investigating emerging correlation effects topological matters.