Robust negative longitudinal magnetoresistance and spin-orbit torque in sputtered PtSn and PtSnFe topological semimetal.

Contrary to topological insulators, topological semimetals possess a nontrivial chiral anomaly that leads to negative magnetoresistance and are hosts to both conductive bulk states and topological surface states with intriguing transport properties for spintronics. Here, we fabricate highly-ordered metallic PtSn and PtSnFe thin films via sputtering technology. Systematic angular dependence (both in-plane and out-of-plane) study of magnetoresistance presents surprisingly robust quadratic and linear negative longitudinal magnetoresistance features for PtSn and PtSnFe, respectively. We attribute the anomalous negative longitudinal magnetoresistance to the type-II Dirac semimetal phase (pristine PtSn) and/or the formation of tunable Weyl semimetal phases through symmetry breaking processes, such as magnetic-atom doping, as confirmed by first-principles calculations. Furthermore, PtSn and PtSnFe show the promising performance for facilitating the development of advanced spin-orbit torque devices. These results extend our understanding of chiral anomaly of topological semimetals and can pave the way for exploring novel topological materials for spintronic devices.