Large magnetoresistance in the antiferromagnetic semimetal NdSb

There has been considerable interest in topological semimetals that exhibit extreme magnetoresistance (XMR). These have included materials lacking inversion symmetry such as TaAs, as well Dirac semimetals such as Cd₃As₂. However, it was reported recently that LaSb and LaBi also exhibit XMR, even though the rocksalt structure of these materials has inversion symmetry, and the band-structure calculations do not show a Dirac dispersion in the bulk. Here, we present magnetoresistance and specific-heat measurements on NdSb, which is isostructural with LaSb. NdSb has an antiferromagnetic ground state and, in analogy with the lanthanum monopnictides, is expected to be a topologically nontrivial semimetal. We show that NdSb has an XMR of ~10⁴%, even within the antiferromagnetic state, illustrating that XMR can occur independently of the absence of time-reversal symmetry breaking in zero magnetic field. The persistence of XMR in a magnetic system offers the promise of new functionality when combining topological matter with electronic correlations. We also find that in an applied magnetic field below the N\'eel temperature there is a first-order transition, consistent with evidence from previous neutron scattering work.