In quantum field theory, we learn that fermions come in three varieties: Majorana, Weyl, and Dirac. Here, we show that in solid-state systems this classification is incomplete, and we find several ...additional types of crystal symmetry-protected free fermionic excitations. We exhaustively classify linear and quadratic three-, six-, and eight-band crossings stabilized by space group symmetries in solid-state systems with spin-orbit coupling and time-reversal symmetry. Several distinct types of fermions arise, differentiated by their degeneracies at and along high-symmetry points, lines, and surfaces. Some notable consequences of these fermions are the presence of Fermi arcs in non-Weyl systems and the existence of Dirac lines. Ab initio calculations identify a number of materials that realize these exotic fermions close to the Fermi level.
In stark contrast to ordinary metals, in materials in which electrons strongly interact with each other or with phonons, electron transport is thought to resemble the flow of viscous fluids. Despite ...their differences, it is predicted that transport in both conventional and correlated materials is fundamentally limited by the uncertainty principle applied to energy dissipation. Here we report the observation of experimental signatures of hydrodynamic electron flow in the Weyl semimetal tungsten diphosphide. Using thermal and magneto-electric transport experiments, we find indications of the transition from a conventional metallic state at higher temperatures to a hydrodynamic electron fluid below 20 K. The hydrodynamic regime is characterized by a viscosity-induced dependence of the electrical resistivity on the sample width and by a strong violation of the Wiedemann-Franz law. Following the uncertainty principle, both electrical and thermal transport are bound by the quantum indeterminacy, independent of the underlying transport regime.
Weyl semimetals are crystalline solids that host emergent relativistic Weyl fermions and have characteristic surface Fermi-arcs in their electronic structure. Weyl semimetals with broken time ...reversal symmetry are difficult to identify unambiguously. In this work, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we visualized the electronic structure of the ferromagnetic crystal Co
Sn
S
and discovered its characteristic surface Fermi-arcs and linear bulk band dispersions across the Weyl points. These results establish Co
Sn
S
as a magnetic Weyl semimetal that may serve as a platform for realizing phenomena such as chiral magnetic effects, unusually large anomalous Hall effect and quantum anomalous Hall effect.
New developments in spintronics based on antiferromagnetic materials show promise for improved fundamental understanding and applications in technology.
Elementary band representations are the fundamental building blocks of atomic limit band structures. They have the defining property that at partial filling they cannot be both gapped and trivial. ...Here, we give two examples-one each in a symmorphic and a nonsymmorphic space group-of elementary band representations realized with an energy gap. In doing so, we explicitly construct a counterexample to a claim by Michel and Zak that single-valued elementary band representations in nonsymmorphic space groups with time-reversal symmetry are connected. For each example, we construct a topological invariant to explicitly demonstrate that the valence bands are nontrivial. We discover a new topological invariant: a movable but unremovable Dirac cone in the "Wilson Hamiltonian" and a bent-Z_{2} index.
Full text
Available for:
CMK, CTK, FMFMET, NUK, UL
The absence of mirror symmetry, or chirality, is behind striking natural phenomena found in systems as diverse as DNA and crystalline solids. A remarkable example occurs when chiral semimetals with ...topologically protected band degeneracies are illuminated with circularly polarized light. Under the right conditions, the part of the generated photocurrent that switches sign upon reversal of the light's polarization, known as the circular photo-galvanic effect, is predicted to depend only on fundamental constants. The conditions to observe quantization are non-universal, and depend on material parameters and the incident frequency. In this work, we perform terahertz emission spectroscopy with tunable photon energy from 0.2 -1.1 eV in the chiral topological semimetal CoSi. We identify a large longitudinal photocurrent peaked at 0.4 eV reaching ~550 μ A/V
, which is much larger than the photocurrent in any chiral crystal reported in the literature. Using first-principles calculations we establish that the peak originates only from topological band crossings, reaching 3.3 ± 0.3 in units of the quantization constant. Our calculations indicate that the quantized circular photo-galvanic effect is within reach in CoSi upon doping and increase of the hot-carrier lifetime. The large photo-conductivity suggests that topological semimetals could potentially be used as novel mid-infrared detectors.
Topological materials ranging from topological insulators to Weyl and Dirac semimetals form one of the most exciting current fields in condensed-matter research. Many half-Heusler compounds, RPtBi (R ...= rare earth), have been theoretically predicted to be topological semimetals. Among various topological attributes envisaged in RPtBi, topological surface states, chiral anomaly, and planar Hall effect have been observed experimentally. Here, we report an unusual intrinsic anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in the antiferromagnetic Heusler Weyl semimetal compounds GdPtBi and NdPtBi that is observed over a wide temperature range. In particular, GdPtBi exhibits an anomalous Hall conductivity of up to 60 Ω−1·cm−1 and an anomalous Hall angle as large as 23%. Muon spin-resonance (μSR) studies of GdPtBi indicate a sharp antiferromagnetic transition (T
N) at 9 K without any noticeable magnetic correlations above T
N. Our studies indicate that Weyl points in these half-Heuslers are induced by a magnetic field via exchange splitting of the electronic bands at or near the Fermi energy, which is the source of the chiral anomaly and the AHE.
PDF
