Resistivity plateau and extremely large magnetoresistance in NbAs2 and TaAs2

In topological insulators (TIs), metallic surface conductance saturates the insulating bulk resistance with de- creasing temperature, resulting in resistivity plateau at low temperatures as a transport signature originating from metallic surface modes protected by time reversal symmetry (TRS). Such characteristic has been found in several materials including Bi2Te2Se, SmB6 etc. Recently, similar behavior has been observed in metallic com- pound LaSb, accompanying an extremely large magetoresistance (XMR). Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) oscillation at low temperatures further confirms the metallic behavior of plateau region under magnetic fields. LaSb[1] has been proposed by the authors as a possible topological semimetal (TSM), while negative magnetoresistance is absent at this moment. Here, high quality single crystals of NbAs2/TaAs2 with inversion symmetry have been grown and the resistivity under magnetic field is systematically investigated. Both of them exhibit metallic behavior under zero magnetic field, and a metal-to-insulator transition occurs when a nonzero magnetic field is applied, resulting in XMR (1.0*105% for NbAs2 and 7.3*105% for TaAs2 at 2.5 K & 14 T). With tempera- ture decreased, a resistivity plateau emerges after the insulator-like regime and SdH oscillation has also been observed in NbAs2 and TaAs2.