Transitions between topologically distinct electronic states have been predicted in different classes of materials and observed in some. A major goal is the identification of measurable properties ...that directly expose the topological nature of such transitions. Here, we focus on the giant Rashba material bismuth tellurium iodine which exhibits a pressure-driven phase transition between topological and trivial insulators in three dimensions. We demonstrate that this transition, which proceeds through an intermediate Weyl semimetallic state, is accompanied by a giant enhancement of the Berry curvature dipole which can be probed in transport and optoelectronic experiments. From first-principles calculations, we show that the Berry dipole-a vector along the polar axis of this material-has opposite orientations in the trivial and topological insulating phases and peaks at the insulator-to-Weyl critical points, at which the nonlinear Hall conductivity can increase by over 2 orders of magnitude.
We show that Weyl Fermi arcs are generically accompanied by a divergence of the surface Berry curvature scaling as 1 / k2, where k is the distance to a hot line in the surface Brillouin zone that ...connects the projection of Weyl nodes with opposite chirality, but which is distinct from the Fermi arc itself. Such surface Berry curvature appears whenever the bulk Weyl dispersion has a velocity tilt toward the surface of interest. This divergence is reflected in a variety of Berry curvature mediated effects that are readily accessible experimentally and, in particular, leads to a surface Berry curvature dipole that grows linearly with the thickness of a slab of a Weyl semimetal material in the limit of the long lifetime of surface states. This implies the emergence of a gigantic contribution to the nonlinear Hall effect in such devices.
We study the Hall conductivity of a two-dimensional electron gas under an inhomogeneous magnetic field B(x). First, we prove using the quantum kinetic theory that an odd magnetic field can lead to a ...purely nonlinear Hall response. Second, considering a real-space magnetic dipole consisting of a sign-changing magnetic field and based on numerical semiclassical dynamics, we unveil a parametric resonance involving the cyclotron ratio and a characteristic width of B(x), which can greatly enhance the Hall response. Different from previous mechanisms that rely on the bulk Berry curvature dipole, the effect largely stems from boundary states associated with the real-space magnetic dipole. Our findings pave a way to engineer current rectification and higher harmonic generation in two-dimensional materials having or not having crystal inversion symmetry.
As they do not rely on the presence of any crystal symmetry, Weyl nodes are robust topological features of an electronic structure that can occur at any momentum and energy. Acting as sinks and ...sources of Berry curvature, Weyl nodes have been predicted to strongly affect the transverse electronic response, like in the anomalous Hall or Nernst effects. However, to observe large anomalous effects the Weyl nodes need to be close to or at the Fermi level, which implies the band structure must be tuned by an external parameter, e.g., chemical doping. Here we show that in a ferromagnetic metal tuning of the Weyl node energy and momentum can be achieved by rotation of the magnetization. First, taking as example the elementary magnet hcp-Co, we use electronic structure calculations based on density-functional theory to show that by canting the magnetization away from the easy axis, Weyl nodes can be driven exactly to the Fermi surface. Second, we show that the same phenomenology applies to the kagome ferromagnet Co_{3}Sn_{2}S_{2}, in which we additionally show how the dynamics in energy and momentum of the Weyl nodes affects the calculated anomalous Hall and Nernst conductivities. Our results highlight how the intrinsic magnetic anisotropy can be used to engineer Weyl physics.
Weyl semimetals exhibit interesting electronic properties due to their topological band structure. In particular, large anomalous Hall and anomalous Nernst signals are often reported, which allow for ...a detailed and quantitative study of subtle features. We pattern single crystals of the magnetic Weyl semimetal Co3Sn2S2 into nanoribbon devices using focused ion beam cutting and optical lithography. This approach enables a very precise study of the galvano- and thermomagnetic transport properties. Indeed, we found interesting features in the temperature dependency of the anomalous Hall and Nernst effects. We present an analysis of the data based on the Mott relation and identify in the Nernst response signatures of magnetic fluctuations enhancing the anomalous Nernst conductivity at the magnetic phase transition.
Symmetry breaking in topological matter has become in recent years a key concept in condensed matter physics to unveil novel electronic states. In this work, we predict that broken inversion symmetry ...and strong spin–orbit coupling in trigonal PtBi2 lead to a type-I Weyl semimetal band structure. Transport measurements show an unusually robust low dimensional superconductivity in thin exfoliated flakes up to 126 nm in thickness (with T c ∼ 275–400 mK), which constitutes the first report and study of unambiguous superconductivity in a type-I Weyl semimetal. Remarkably, a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition with T BKT ∼ 310 mK is revealed in up to 60 nm thick flakes, which is nearly an order of magnitude thicker than the rare examples of two-dimensional superconductors exhibiting such a transition. This makes PtBi2 an ideal platform to study low dimensional and unconventional superconductivity in topological semimetals.
Abstract
Even if Weyl semimetals are characterized by quasiparticles with well-defined chirality, exploiting this experimentally is severely hampered by Weyl lattice fermions coming in pairs with ...opposite chirality, typically causing the net chirality picked up by experimental probes to vanish. Here, we show this issue can be circumvented in a controlled manner when both time-reversal- and inversion symmetry are broken. To this end, we investigate chirality disbalance in the carbide family RMC
2
(R a rare-earth and M a transition metal), showing several members to be Weyl semimetals. Using the noncentrosymmetric ferromagnet NdRhC
2
as an illustrating example, we show that an odd number of Weyl nodes can be stabilized at its Fermi surface by properly tilting its magnetization. The chiral configuration endows a topological phase transition as the Weyl node transitions across the Fermi sheets, which triggers interesting chiral electromagnetic responses. Further, the tilt direction determines the sign of the resulting net chirality, opening up a simple route to control its sign and strength.
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