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Title: Topological Singularity Induced Chiral Kohn Anomaly in a Weyl Semimetal

Abstract

The electron-phonon interaction (EPI) is instrumental in a wide variety of phenomena in solid-state physics, such as electrical resistivity in metals, carrier mobility, optical transition, and polaron effects in semiconductors, lifetime of hot carriers, transition temperature in BCS superconductors, and even spin relaxation in diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers for quantum information processing. However, due to the weak EPI strength, most phenomena have focused on electronic properties rather than on phonon properties. One prominent exception is the Kohn anomaly, where phonon softening can emerge when the phonon wave vector nests the Fermi surface of metals. In this paper, we report a new class of Kohn anomaly in a topological Weyl semimetal (WSM), predicted by field-theoretical calculations, and experimentally observed through inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering on WSM tantalum phosphide. Compared to the conventional Kohn anomaly, the Fermi surface in a WSM exhibits multiple topological singularities of Weyl nodes, leading to a distinct nesting condition with chiral selection, a power-law divergence, and non-negligible dynamical effects. Our work brings the concept of the Kohn anomaly into WSMs and sheds light on elucidating the EPI mechanism in emergent topological materials.

Authors:
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [4]; ORCiD logo [4];  [5];  [5]; ORCiD logo [6];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  3. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
  4. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  5. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Center for Neutron Research; Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
  6. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Center for Neutron Research
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT); Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); National Science Foundationl (NSF)
Contributing Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Argonne National Laboratory; National Institute of Standard Technology
OSTI Identifier:
1642125
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1633429; OSTI ID: 1651247
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC02-06CH11357; SC0020148; 1122374; HR0011-16-2-0041; AC05-00OR22725
Resource Type:
Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: 23; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Weyl semimetal; Kohn anomaly; electron-phonon interaction; topological materials; inelastic neutron scattering

Citation Formats

Nguyen, Thanh, Han, Fei, Andrejevic, Nina, Pablo-Pedro, Ricardo, Apte, Anuj, Tsurimaki, Yoichiro, Ding, Zhiwei, Zhang, Kunyan, Alatas, Ahmet, Alp, Ercan E., Chi, Songxue, Fernandez-Baca, Jaime, Matsuda, Masaaki, Tennant, David Alan, Zhao, Yang, Xu, Zhijun, Lynn, Jeffrey W., Huang, Shengxi, and Li, Mingda. Topological Singularity Induced Chiral Kohn Anomaly in a Weyl Semimetal. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.236401.
Nguyen, Thanh, Han, Fei, Andrejevic, Nina, Pablo-Pedro, Ricardo, Apte, Anuj, Tsurimaki, Yoichiro, Ding, Zhiwei, Zhang, Kunyan, Alatas, Ahmet, Alp, Ercan E., Chi, Songxue, Fernandez-Baca, Jaime, Matsuda, Masaaki, Tennant, David Alan, Zhao, Yang, Xu, Zhijun, Lynn, Jeffrey W., Huang, Shengxi, & Li, Mingda. Topological Singularity Induced Chiral Kohn Anomaly in a Weyl Semimetal. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.236401
Nguyen, Thanh, Han, Fei, Andrejevic, Nina, Pablo-Pedro, Ricardo, Apte, Anuj, Tsurimaki, Yoichiro, Ding, Zhiwei, Zhang, Kunyan, Alatas, Ahmet, Alp, Ercan E., Chi, Songxue, Fernandez-Baca, Jaime, Matsuda, Masaaki, Tennant, David Alan, Zhao, Yang, Xu, Zhijun, Lynn, Jeffrey W., Huang, Shengxi, and Li, Mingda. 2020. "Topological Singularity Induced Chiral Kohn Anomaly in a Weyl Semimetal". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.236401. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1642125.
@article{osti_1642125,
title = {Topological Singularity Induced Chiral Kohn Anomaly in a Weyl Semimetal},
author = {Nguyen, Thanh and Han, Fei and Andrejevic, Nina and Pablo-Pedro, Ricardo and Apte, Anuj and Tsurimaki, Yoichiro and Ding, Zhiwei and Zhang, Kunyan and Alatas, Ahmet and Alp, Ercan E. and Chi, Songxue and Fernandez-Baca, Jaime and Matsuda, Masaaki and Tennant, David Alan and Zhao, Yang and Xu, Zhijun and Lynn, Jeffrey W. and Huang, Shengxi and Li, Mingda},
abstractNote = {The electron-phonon interaction (EPI) is instrumental in a wide variety of phenomena in solid-state physics, such as electrical resistivity in metals, carrier mobility, optical transition, and polaron effects in semiconductors, lifetime of hot carriers, transition temperature in BCS superconductors, and even spin relaxation in diamond nitrogen-vacancy centers for quantum information processing. However, due to the weak EPI strength, most phenomena have focused on electronic properties rather than on phonon properties. One prominent exception is the Kohn anomaly, where phonon softening can emerge when the phonon wave vector nests the Fermi surface of metals. In this paper, we report a new class of Kohn anomaly in a topological Weyl semimetal (WSM), predicted by field-theoretical calculations, and experimentally observed through inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering on WSM tantalum phosphide. Compared to the conventional Kohn anomaly, the Fermi surface in a WSM exhibits multiple topological singularities of Weyl nodes, leading to a distinct nesting condition with chiral selection, a power-law divergence, and non-negligible dynamical effects. Our work brings the concept of the Kohn anomaly into WSMs and sheds light on elucidating the EPI mechanism in emergent topological materials.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.236401},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1642125}, journal = {Physical Review Letters},
issn = {0031-9007},
number = 23,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

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