Transport properties of the topological semi-metal LuPtBi under pressure

We present high-pressure magneto-transport data on single crystals of LuPtBi, a member of the ternary half-Heusler family. Recent band structure calculations show that LuPtBi is a topological semi-metal at ambient pressure due to strong spin-orbit coupling [1]. By decreasing the lattice parameter, equivalent to increasing pressure, the system should become a trivial insulator We have grown single crystals of LuPtBi and studied both the field dependence and the pressure dependence of their resistivity. The field dependence shows typical semi-metal behaviour, namely a weak temperature dependence and a large magneto-resistance. The pressure dependence shows a significant increase of resistivity and a decrease of magneto-resistance with increasing pressure. We compare our experimental results to the available theoretical work on the transport properties of topological semi-metals [2]. \\[4pt] [1] Stanislav Chadov, \textit{et al.} Nature, \textbf{9}, 541 (2010)\\[0pt] [2] W. Al-Sawai, et al. PRB, \textbf{82}, 125208 (2010)