Effect of Pt vacancies on magnetotransport of Weyl semimetal candidate GdPtSb epitaxial films

Abstract

We examine the effects of Pt vacancies on the magnetotransport properties of Weyl semimetal candidate GdPtSb films, grown by molecular beam epitaxy on c-plane sapphire. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and x-ray diffraction measurements suggest that phase pure GdPt$_{x}$Sb films can accommodate up to $15\%$ Pt vacancies ($x=0.85$), which act as acceptors as measured by Hall effect. Two classes of electrical transport behavior are observed. Pt-deficient films display a metallic temperature dependent resistivity (d$ρ$/dT$>$0). The longitudinal magnetoresistance (LMR, magnetic field $\mathbf{B}$ parallel to electric field $\mathbf{E}$) is more negative than transverse magnetoresistance (TMR, $\mathbf{B} \perp \mathbf{E}$), consistent with the expected chiral anomaly for a Weyl semimetal. The combination of Pt-vacancy disorder and doping away from the expected Weyl nodes; however, suggests conductivity fluctuations may explain the negative LMR rather than chiral anomaly. Samples closer to stoichiometry display the opposite behavior: semiconductor-like resistivity (d$ρ$/dT$<$0) and more negative transverse magnetoresistance than longitudinal magnetoresistance. Hysteresis and other nonlinearities in the low field Hall effect and magnetoresistance suggest that spin disorder scattering, and possible topological Hall effect, may dominate the near stoichiometric samples. Our findings highlight the complications of transport-based identification of Weyl nodes, but point to possible topological spin textures in GdPtSb.