Transport study in Coherently Strained Thin Films of a 3D Dirac Semimetal

Cd₃As₂ is a 3D Dirac semimetal with doubly degenerate band crossings at isolated points in Brillouin zone. Here, we present a study of epitaxially strained thin films of Cd₃As₂, grown by molecular beam epitaxy on (111) GaAs with In_xGa_1-xSb buffer. The composition (x) was varied to obtain layers that are lattice matched with the Cd₃As₂, as well as to obtain tensile and compressively strained Cd₃As₂. Films grow coherently strained between 0.44% (tensile) and -0.46% (compressive) strain up to 85 nm thickness. Magneto transport measurements for the thin films (below 50 nm) reveal 2D quantum oscillations under tensile strain, whereas in compressive direction the quantum oscillations are from 3D Fermi surface. We discuss how strain engineering can be used to control the electronic states in thin films of Dirac Semimetals.