Magnetotransport Features of Bulk and Surface States in Weyl Semimetals

We study the conductivity of a Weyl slab, where the number of bulk states is much larger than of surface states. If the dominant scattering mechanism is forward long-range scattering, the surface conductivity can overcome the bulk conductivity.

When transport is dominated by surface states, the system can show a large magnetoresistance with a magnetic field perpendicular to the surface. This marks a clear contrast with what is expected if transport is dominated by bulk states. Thus, simulating the conductivity by solving the Boltzmann equation for a Weyl slab allow us to predict the magnetoresistance for magnetic field in different directions.

Our results are obtained by solving the Boltzmann equation in two dimension with gaussian scatterers. Previous studies show that the method reproduces the magnetoresistance features of complex systems such as oxide interfaces [1, 2]. The results for a Weyl slab are further compared to the magnetotransport numerical calculations of the 3D Boltzmann equation for a bulk Weyl system.


[1] N. Bovenzi and M. Diez, Phys. Rev. B 95, 205430 (2017).
[2] N. Bovenzi et al., arxiv:1707.01038 (2017).