Charge density wave, enhanced mobility, and large nonsaturating magnetoresistance across the magnetic states of HoNiC2 and ErNiC2

Abstract

We report on magnetotransport and thermoelectric properties of two ternary carbides HoNiC2 and ErNiC2 hosting both charge density wave and long-range magnetic order. In the charge density wave state, both compounds show relatively large magnetoresistance MR ≈ 150% in HoNiC2 and ≈70% in ErNiC2 at a magnetic field of 9 T and temperature as low as 2 K. This positive field-linear magnetoresistance shows no signatures of saturation. Our combined analysis of diagonal and off-diagonal transport responses reveals electronic mobility values on the order of 10^3 cm^2V^−1s^−1 at 2 K. Both the elevated mobility and related enhanced magnetoresistance persist in the zero-field antiferromagnetic ground state and survive the field-induced crossovers through metamagnetic to field-aligned ferromagnetic states. The robustness of the high-mobility Fermi surface pockets across the magnetically ordered states suggests that the charge density wave is not suppressed but coexists with long-range magnetism in the entire dome of the magnetically ordered states.