Lifshitz Transition and Non-Fermi Liquid Behavior in Highly Doped Semimetals

Abstract

The classical Fermi liquid theory and Drude model have provided fundamental ways to understand the resistivity of most metals. The violation of the classical theory, known as non-Fermi liquid (NFL) transport, appears in certain metals, including topological semimetals, but quantitative understanding of the NFL behavior has not yet been established. In particular, the determination of the non-quadratic temperature exponent in the resistivity, a sign of NFL behavior, remains a puzzling issue. Here, a physical model to quantitatively explain the Lifshitz transition and NFL behavior in highly doped (a carrier density of ≈1022 cm−3) monoclinic Nb2Se3 is reported. Hall and magnetoresistance measurements, the two-band Drude model, and first-principles calculations demonstrate an apparent chemical potential shift by temperature in monoclinic Nb2Se3, which induces a Lifshitz transition and NFL behavior in the material. Accordingly, the non-quadratic temperature exponent in the resistivity can be quantitatively determined by the chemical potential shift under the framework of Fermi liquid theory. This model provides a new experimental insight for nontrivial transport with NFL behavior or sign inversion of Seebeck coefficients in emerging materials.