Electron transport in nodal-line semimetals

Abstract

We study the electrical conductivity in a nodal-line semimetal with charged impurities. The screening of the Coulomb potential in this system is qualitatively different from what is found in conventional metals or semiconductors, with the screened potential ϕ decaying as ϕ∝1/r[superscript 2] over a wide interval of distances r. This unusual screening gives rise to a rich variety of conduction regimes as a function of temperature, doping level, and impurity concentration. In particular, nodal-line semimetals exhibit a diverging mobility ∝1/|μ| in the limit of vanishing chemical potential μ, a linearly increasing dependence of the conductivity on temperature, σ∝T, and a large weak-localization correction with a strongly anisotropic dependence on magnetic field.