Peculiarities of the electro- and magnetoresistivity of WTe2 and MoTe2 single crystals before and after quenching

Abstract

WTe2 and MoTe2 single crystals were grown, some of them were quenched, and the following properties were studied: electroresistivity in the temperature range from 1.8 to 300 K, magnetoresistivity at temperatures from 1.8 to 300 K in magnetic fields of up to 9 T. On the one hand, quenching leads to dramatic changes in the behaviour and value of the electroresistivity of MoTe2; the type of the electroresistivity changes from “semiconductor” to “metallic”, and the electroresistivity values of MoTe2 before and after quenching differ by 8 orders of magnitude (!) at low temperatures. On the other hand, quenching is shown not to lead to significant changes in the behaviour and value of the electroresistivity of WTe2. A relatively small increase in the electroresistivity of quenched WTe2 at low temperatures can be associated with the scattering of current carriers by structural defects. The magnetoresistivity of MoTe2 increases from 7 to 16% in a field of 9 T at a temperature of 12 K as a result of quenching. The magnetoresistivity of WTe2 is shown to reach ∼1700% in a field of 9 T at 2 K. The behaviour of the magnetoresistivity of non-quenched samples is typical for compensated conductors with a closed Fermi surface.