Magnetotransport signatures of chiral magnetic anomaly in half-Heusler phase ScPtBi.

Study of magnetotransport properties of ScPtBi revealed simultaneously: negative contribution to the longitudinal magnetoresistance, planar Hall effect, and distinct angular narrowing of the longitudinal magnetoresistance { three hallmarks of chiral magnetic anomaly (pumping of axial charge between Weyl nodes), a distinct property of topological semimetals. Electronic structure calculations show that structural defects, such as antisites and vacancies, bring substantial density of states at the Fermi level of ScPtBi, indicating that it is a semimetal, not a zero-gap semiconductor, as predicted earlier. This is in accord with electrical resistivity in ScPtBi, showing no characteristics of semiconductor. Moreover, below 0.7K we observed an onset of a superconducting transition, with the resistivity disappearing completely below 0.23 K.