Recently MoTe2 that belongs to the type II Weyl semimetals, has attracted considerable attentions because of its intriguing topological physics as well as its potential applications in information technology. For instance, an extremely large magnetoresistance (MR) that is crucial for either sensitive magnetic sensors or the basic elements in magnetic random access memories, has been observed in MoTe2. More interestingly, because of the structural origin of Weyl semimetal state in MoTe2, the physical properties of MoTe2 are expected to be very sensitive to external strain. It has been theoretically predicted that strain could drive a series of topological phase transitions in this compound. However, tuning the physical properties of Weyl semimetal MoTe2 by strain has not been reported to date. Here, we present the evidence from an electrical transport experiment on a single crystal MoTe2, that the strain can significantly enhance the MR by around 28%. Moreover, we observed that the enhancement of MR is accompanied with an enhancement of transition temperature Ts for the structural phase transition from 1T’ to Td phase. The observed strain control of electrical transport properties in MoTe2 provides insights into the interplay between strain and novel Weyl physics.

Strain control of electrical transport properties in Weyl semimetal MoTe2

254th National Meeting (2017)

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