Galvanomagnetic properties of the putative type-II Dirac semimetal PtTe.

Platinum ditelluride has recently been characterized, based on angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data and electronic band structure calculations, as a possible representative of type-II Dirac semimetals. Here, we report on the magnetotransport behavior (electrical resistivity, Hall effect) in this compound, investigated on high-quality single-crystalline specimens. The magnetoresistance (MR) of PtTe is large (over 3000% at T = 1.8 K in B = 9 T) and unsaturated in strong fields in the entire temperature range studied. The MR isotherms obey a Kohler's type scaling with the exponent m = 1.69, different from the case of ideal electron-hole compensation. In applied magnetic fields, the resistivity shows a low-temperature plateau, characteristic of topological semimetals. In strong fields, well-resolved Shubnikov - de Haas (SdH) oscillations with two principle frequencies were found, and their analysis yielded charge mobilities of the order of 10 cm V s and rather small effective masses of charge carriers, 0.11 m and 0.21 m. However, the extracted Berry phases point to trivial character of the electronic bands involved in the SdH oscillations. The Hall effect data corroborated a multi-band character of the electrical conductivity in PtTe, with moderate charge compensation.