Observation of quantum oscillations near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit in CaAs3

Abstract

The Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit sets the lower bound of the carrier mean free path for coherent quasiparticle transport. Metallicity beyond this limit is of great interest because it is often closely related to quantum criticality and unconventional superconductivity. Progress along this direction mainly focuses on the strange-metal behaviors originating from the evolution of the quasiparticle scattering rate, such as linear-in-temperature resistivity, while the quasiparticle coherence phenomena in this regime are much less explored due to the short mean free path at the diffusive bound. Here we report the observation of quantum oscillations from Landau quantization near the Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit in CaAs₃. Despite the insulator-like temperature dependence of resistivity, CaAs₃ presents giant magnetoresistance and prominent Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations from Fermi surfaces, indicating highly coherent band transport. In contrast, quantum oscillation is absent in the magnetic torque. The quasiparticle effective mass increases systematically with magnetic fields, manifesting a much larger value than what is expected based on magneto-infrared spectroscopy. This suggests a strong many-body renormalization effect near the Fermi surface. We find that these unconventional behaviors may be explained by the interplay between the mobility edge and the van Hove singularity, which results in the formation of coherent cyclotron orbits emerging at the diffusive bound. Our results call for further study on the electron correlation effect of the van Hove singularity.

Keywords: Mott-Ioffe-Regel limit; mobility edge; quantum oscillations; van Hove singularity.