Single crystal growth, resistivity, and electronic structure of the Weyl semimetals NbP and TaP

Abstract

We have successfully synthesized niobium monophosphide and tantalum monophosphide crystals by a chemical vapor transport technique. We report resistivity vs. temperature of both materials in the temperature range from 2 K to 300 K.We have also performed electronic structure calculations and present the band structure and density of states of these two compounds. The calculations show that both compounds are semimetals, as their conduction and valence bands overlap near the Fermi energy.