Modulation of Weyl semimetal state in half-Heusler GdPtBi enabled by hydrostatic pressure

Abstract

The excitation of Weyl semimetals obeys the relativistic Weyl equation and attracted significant research attention due to its unique electronic state. In this paper, we present an emerging approach for modulating the electron state of half-Heusler GdPtBi by hydrostatic pressure. Through measurements of the temperature-dependent resistivity and magnetoresistance (MR), a phase transition from a Weyl semimetal to a semiconductor state was identified at about 2.0 GPa upon increasing the hydrostatic pressure. Electron transport in semiconductive GdPtBi is found to be well describable by Mott variable-range-hopping. The simulated electronic structures under different hydrostatic pressures further indicate that changes in the electronic states of atoms in the primary unit cell result in a phase transition in GdPtBi. This work presents an effective strategy for modulating the electronic state by tuning the lattice constant.