The recently discovered material ${\mathrm{PtSn}}_4$ is known to exhibit extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) that also manifests Dirac arc nodes on the surface. ${\mathrm{PdSn}}_4$ is isostructural to ${\mathrm{PtSn}}_4$ with the same electron count. We report on the physical properties of high-quality single crystals of ${\mathrm{PdSn}}_4$ including specific heat, temperature- and magnetic-field-dependent resistivity and magnetization, and electronic band-structure properties obtained from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). We observe that ${\mathrm{PdSn}}_4$ has physical properties that are qualitatively similar to those of ${\mathrm{PtSn}}_4$, but find also pronounced differences. Importantly, the Dirac arc node surface state of ${\mathrm{PtSn}}_4$ is gapped out for ${\mathrm{PdSn}}_4$. By comparing these similar compounds, we address the origin of the extremely large magnetoresistance in ${\mathrm{PdSn}}_4$ and ${\mathrm{PtSn}}_4$; based on detailed analysis of the magnetoresistivity $\rho (H,T)$, we conclude that neither the carrier compensation nor the Dirac arc node surface state are the primary reason for the extremely large magnetoresistance. On the other hand, we find that, surprisingly, Kohler's rule scaling of the magnetoresistance, which describes a self-similarity of the field-induced orbital electronic motion across different length scales and is derived for a simple electronic response of metals to an applied magnetic field is obeyed over the full range of temperatures and field strengths that we explore.

• Received 20 July 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.165145