Pressure-induced topological phase transitions and strongly anisotropic magnetoresistance in bulk black phosphorus

Abstract

We report the anisotropic magnetotransport measurement on a noncompound band semiconductor black phosphorus (BP) with magnetic field $\mathbit{B}$ up to 16 Tesla applied in both perpendicular and parallel to electric current $\mathbit{I}$ under hydrostatic pressures. The BP undergoes a topological Lifshitz transition from band semiconductor to a zero-gap Dirac semimetal state at a critical pressure ${P}_{c}$, characterized by a weak localization-weak antilocalization transition at low magnetic fields and the emergence of a nontrivial Berry phase of $\ensuremath{\pi}$ detected by SdH magneto-oscillations in magnetoresistance curves. In the transition region, we observe a pressure-dependent negative MR only in the $\mathbit{B}\ensuremath{\parallel}\mathbit{I}$ configuration. This negative longitudinal MR is attributed to the Adler-Bell-Jackiw anomaly (topological $\mathbit{E}\ifmmode\cdot\else\textperiodcentered\fi{}\mathbit{B}$ term) in the presence of weak antilocalization corrections.