Large anomalous Hall effect in a half-Heusler antiferromagnet

The topological nontrivial states in half-Heusler compounds attracted significant attention even before the discoveries of topological semimetals.

“The topological nontrivial states in half-Heusler compounds attracted significant attention even before the discoveries of topological semimetals (108,(295)(296)(297).”

With the quadratic band touching of the inverted system, GdPtBi can be tuned into a Weyl state under applied magnetic field, possibly enhanced by the effects of the Gd moments.

“With the quadratic band touching of the inverted system, it is believed that GdPtBi can be tuned into a Weyl state under applied magnetic field (Cano et al. , 2017; Hirschberger et al. , 2016a; Suzuki et al. , 2016) (possible enhanced by the effects of the Gd moments (Shekhar et al. , 2016)).”

Half-Heuslers with rare earths readily show magnetic effects; GdPtBi shows a Neel transition around 9 K.

“Half-Heuslers with rare earths readily show magnetic effects (Canfield et al. , 1991). For instance, GdPtBi shows a Neel transition around 9 K (Suzuki et al. , 2016).”

The antiferromagnetic half-Heusler compounds GdPtBi and NdPtBi have been predicted to be magnetic Weyl semimetals under applied magnetic field.

“The antiferromagnetic half Heusler compounds GdPtBi and NdPtBi have been predicted to be magnetic Weyl semimetals (Hirschberger et al. , 2016a; Shekhar et al. , 2016; Suzuki et al. , 2016) under applied magnetic field.”

Current jetting is expected to be less of a concern in the quadratic band touching system GdPtBi because its transverse magnetoresistance is only of order 3.

“Current jetting is expected to be less of a concern in the quadratic band touching system GdPtBi (the transverse MR is only of order 3) (Hirschberger et al. , 2016a; Shekhar et al. , 2016; Suzuki et al. , 2016)”