Valley-Polarized Interlayer Conduction of Anisotropic Dirac Fermions in SrMnBi2

Abstract

We report the valley-selective interlayer conduction of SrMnBi2 under in-plane magnetic fields. The c-axis resistivity of SrMnBi2 shows clear angular magnetoresistance oscillations indicating coherent interlayer conduction. Strong fourfold variation of the coherent peak in the c-axis resistivity reveals that the contribution of each Dirac valley is significantly modulated by the in-plane field orientation. This originates from anisotropic Dirac Fermi surfaces with strong disparity in the momentum-dependent interlayer coupling. Furthermore, we found a signature of broken valley symmetry at high magnetic fields. These findings demonstrate that a quasi-two-dimensional anisotropic Dirac system can host a valley-polarized interlayer current through magnetic valley control. © 2014 American Physical Society.