Transport evidence for the three-dimensional Dirac semimetal phase in ZrTe5

Topological Dirac semimetal is a newly discovered class of materials which has attracted intense attention. This material can be viewed as a three-dimensional (3D) analog of graphene and has linear energy dispersion in bulk, leading to a range of exotic transport properties. Here we report direct quantum transport evidence of the 3D Dirac semimetal phase of layered material ZrTe5 by angular-dependent magnetoresistance measurements under high magnetic fields up to 31 T. We observed very clear negative longitudinal magnetoresistance induced by chiral anomaly under the condition of the magnetic field aligned only along the current direction. Pronounced Shubnikov-de Hass (SdH) quantum oscillations in both longitudinal magnetoresistance and transverse Hall resistance were observed, revealing anisotropic light cyclotron masses and high mobility of the system. In particular, a nontrivial pi-Berry phase in the SdH oscillations gives clear evidence for the 3D Dirac semimetal phase. Furthermore, we observed clear Landau level splitting under high magnetic field, suggesting possible splitting of the Dirac point into Weyl points due to broken time-reversal symmetry. Our results indicate that ZrTe5 is an ideal platform to study 3D massless Dirac and Weyl fermions in a layered compound.