Using the High Magnetic Field Facility (SHMFF) at High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CHMFL), scientists from Fudan University discovered ultra high conductivity in Weyl semimetal NbAs nanobelts.

Electric transport properties of low-dimensional systems have been one of the central topics of condensed matter physics.

Such intense interests are driven by both fundamental study and functional nanoscale device research.

Significant advances have been made in low-carrier-density systems such as carbon-based low-dimensional structures and quantum wells.

In the recent work, scientists successfully synthesized NbAs nanobelts by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) technique. Premier investigations demonstrated that the sheet conductance of NbAs nanobelts up to 5–100 S/ exceeding that of other conventional 2D electron.

In order to further reveal the underling mechanism, they carried out the magneto-transport measurements in CHMFL.

In high magnetic field range (20T~33T), NbAs nanobelts exhibited a series of 2D-like quantum oscillations with high frequencies, which were from the surface states.

Further analyses indicated that the sheet carrier density of those orbits was quite close to the measured carrier density of NbAs nanobelts.

Those observations suggested that the surface state was the origin of high conductance in NbAs nanobelts.

And such evidenced low-dissipation property of Fermi arcs may have implications for both fundamental study and potential electronic applications.

This work was supported by Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS, the Scientific Instrument Developing Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Innovative Program of Development Foundation of Hefei Center for Physical Science and Technology.