Intrinsic V vacancy and large magnetoresistance in V_1-δSb₂ single crystal

The binary pnictide semimetals have attracted considerable attention due to their fantastic physical properties that include topological effects, negative magnetoresistance, Weyl fermions, and large non-saturation magnetoresistance. In this paper, we have successfully grown the high-quality V_1-δSb₂ single crystals by Sb flux method and investigated their electronic transport properties. A large positive magnetoresistance that reaches 477% under a magnetic field of 12 T at T = 1.8 K was observed. Notably, the magnetoresistance showed a cusp-like feature at the low magnetic fields and such feature weakened gradually as the temperature increased, which indicated the presence of a weak antilocalization effect (WAL). In addition, based upon the experimental and theoretical band structure calculations, V_1-δSb₂ is a research candidate for a flat band.