Large magnetoresistance and superconductivity in α-gallium single crystals

Abstract

Topological metals, including Dirac and Weyl semimetals, represent a wide class of quantum materials with non-trivial electronic band structures. The essential properties of Dirac or Weyl fermions, including light effective mass and high mobility, have been observed in a number of semimetal compounds, which in turn exhibit large positive magnetoresistances. Here, we report an unexpected observation of all these properties in α-gallium (α-Ga) single crystals, a pure metal that is in the liquid phase at room temperature and ambient pressure. Based on systematical transport measurements, α-Ga single crystal is found to exhibit large magnetoresistance, reaching about 1.66 × 106 per cent at 2 K in a magnetic field of 9 T. At low temperatures the de Haas–van Alphen and Shubinikov de Hass quantum oscillations show ultrahigh mobility and very small cyclotron effective mass for charge carriers, together with a non-trivial Berry phase. Combined with first-principle band structure calculations, these properties demonstrate α-Ga as a rare topological pure metal. Furthermore, superconductivity with Tc of ~0.9 K is confirmed by both specific heat and resistivity measurements. These findings suggest that α-Ga is a unique pure metal displaying both non-trivial topological and superconducting properties.