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Criteria for Directly Detecting Topological Fermi Arcs in Weyl Semimetals

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [2];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [3];  [7];  [8];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Lab. for Topological Quantum Matter and Spectroscopy
  2. National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore). Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre and Dept. of PHysics
  3. Peking Univ., Beijing (China). International Center for Quantum Materials
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Condensed Matter and Magnet Science Group; Univ. of Central Florida, Orlando, FL (United States). Dept. of Physics
  5. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Lab. for Topological Quantum Matter and Spectroscopy; National Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu (Taiwan). Dept. of Physics
  6. National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore). Centre for Advanced 2D Materials and Graphene Research Centre and Dept. of PHysics; Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  7. Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  8. National Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu (Taiwan). Dept. of Physics; Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan). Inst. of Physics

The recent discovery of the first Weyl semimetal in TaAs provides the first observation of a Weyl fermion in nature and demonstrates a novel type of anomalous surface state, the Fermi arc. Like topological insulators, the bulk topological invariants of a Weyl semimetal are uniquely fixed by the surface states of a bulk sample. We present a set of distinct conditions, accessible by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), each of which demonstrates topological Fermi arcs in a surface state band structure, with minimal reliance on calculation. We also apply these results to TaAs and NbP. For the first time, we rigorously demonstrate a nonzero Chern number in TaAs by counting chiral edge modes on a closed loop. Furthermore, we show that it is unreasonable to directly observe Fermi arcs in NbP by ARPES within available experimental resolution and spectral linewidth. Our results are general and apply to any new material to demonstrate a Weyl semimetal.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396; FG02-07ER46352; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1352386
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1237788
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--17-22127
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 116; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Photonic crystals possessing multiple Weyl points and the experimental observation of robust surface states journal October 2016
Discovery of a new type of topological Weyl fermion semimetal state in MoxW1−xTe2 journal December 2016
Weyl semimetals, Fermi arcs and chiral anomalies journal October 2016
Direct optical detection of Weyl fermion chirality in a topological semimetal journal May 2017
Tunable anomalous Hall conductivity through volume-wise magnetic competition in a topological kagome magnet journal January 2020
Topological chiral crystals with helicoid-arc quantum states journal March 2019
Validity of Weyl fermion picture for transition metals monopnictides TaAs, TaP, NbAs, and NbP from ab initio studies journal February 2018
Discovery of topological nodal-line fermionic phase in a magnetic material GdSbTe journal September 2018
Room-temperature magnetic topological Weyl fermion and nodal line semimetal states in half-metallic Heusler Co2TiX (X=Si, Ge, or Sn) journal December 2016
Anisotropic thermoelectric properties of Weyl semimetal NbX (X = P and As): a potential thermoelectric material journal January 2019
Dowsing for nodal lines in a topological semimetal journal December 2018
Quantum transport in Dirac and Weyl semimetals: a review journal May 2017
Symmetry demanded topological nodal-line materials journal January 2018
Quasiparticle interference on type-I and type-II Weyl semimetal surfaces: a review journal January 2018
Elastic phononic plates with first-order and second-order topological phases journal January 2020
Electronic transport property in Weyl semimetal with local Weyl cone tilt journal February 2018
Zitterbewegung in time-reversal Weyl semimetals journal May 2018
Andreev reflection in nodal-line Weyl semimetal journal February 2020
Imaging electronic states on topological semimetals using scanning tunneling microscopy journal October 2016
Weak-value amplification for Weyl-point separation in momentum space journal October 2018
Electronic non-coplanar refraction and deflected diffraction of Weyl-node-mismatch junctions journal November 2019
Nonlocal transport in superconducting heterostructures based on Weyl semimetals journal August 2019
Evolution of pair correlation symmetries and supercurrent reversal in tilted Weyl semimetals journal January 2020
Direct observation of nonequivalent Fermi-arc states of opposite surfaces in the noncentrosymmetric Weyl semimetal NbP journal April 2016
Observation of topological nodal fermion semimetal phase in ZrSiS journal May 2016
Topological density-wave states in a particle-hole symmetric Weyl metal journal August 2016
Bulk spectroscopic measurement of the topological charge of Weyl nodes with resonant x rays journal September 2016
Prediction and control of spin polarization in a Weyl semimetallic phase of BiSb journal October 2016
Magnetotransport and de Haas–van Alphen measurements in the type-II Weyl semimetal TaIrTe 4 journal October 2016
Minimal models for topological Weyl semimetals journal February 2017
Prediction of a magnetic Weyl semimetal without spin-orbit coupling and strong anomalous Hall effect in the Heusler compensated ferrimagnet Ti 2 MnAl journal February 2018
Topological surface Fermi arcs in the magnetic Weyl semimetal Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 journal June 2018
Epsilon-near-zero response and tunable perfect absorption in Weyl semimetals journal August 2018
Chiral optical response of multifold fermions journal October 2018
Green's function of semi-infinite Weyl semimetals journal November 2018
Fermi arc engineering at the interface between two Weyl semimetals journal November 2018
Transport across junctions of a Weyl and a multi-Weyl semimetal journal February 2019
Tunable surface plasmons in Weyl semimetals TaAs and NbAs journal March 2019
Phononic Weyl points and one-way topologically protected nontrivial phononic surface arc states in noncentrosymmetric WC-type materials journal May 2019
Signatures of Fermi Arcs in the Quasiparticle Interferences of the Weyl Semimetals TaAs and NbP journal February 2016
Spin Polarization and Texture of the Fermi Arcs in the Weyl Fermion Semimetal TaAs journal March 2016
Orbital Fingerprint of Topological Fermi Arcs in the Weyl Semimetal TaP journal March 2019
From Dirac Semimetals to Topological Phases in Three Dimensions: A Coupled-Wire Construction journal February 2019
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Visualizing weakly bound surface Fermi arcs and their correspondence to bulk Weyl fermions journal August 2016
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Bulk spectroscopic measurement of the topological charge of Weyl nodes with resonant x-rays text January 2016
Weyl and Dirac Semimetals in Three Dimensional Solids text January 2017
Symmetry Demanded Topological Nodal-line Materials text January 2017
From Dirac semimetals to topological phases in three dimensions: a coupled wire construction text January 2017
Quasiparticle interference on type-I and type-II Weyl semimetal surfaces: a review text January 2018
Chiral Optical Response of Multifold Fermions text January 2018
Epsilon-Near-Zero Response and Tunable Perfect Absorption in Weyl Semimetals text January 2018
Transport across junctions of a Weyl and a multi-Weyl semimetal text January 2018

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