B20 Weyl Semimetal CoSi Film Fabricated by Flash-Lamp Annealing
Zichao Li, Ye Yuan, René Hübner, L. Rebohle, Yan Zhou, M. Helm, Kornelius Nielsch, Sławomir Prucnal, Shengqiang Zhou
Abstract
B20-CoSi is a newly discovered Weyl semimetal that crystallizes into a noncentrosymmetric crystal structure. However, the investigation of B20-CoSi has so far been focused on bulk materials, whereas the growth of thin films on technology-relevant substrates is a prerequisite for most practical applications. In this study, we have used millisecond-range flash-lamp annealing, a nonequilibrium solid-state reaction, to grow B20-CoSi thin films. By optimizing the annealing parameters, we were able to obtain thin films with a pure B20-CoSi phase. The magnetic and transport measurements indicate the appearance of the charge density wave and chiral anomaly. Our work presents a promising method for preparing thin films of most binary B20 transition-metal silicides, which are candidates for topological Weyl semimetals.