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Title: Experimental discovery of a topological Weyl semimetal state in TaP

Journal Article · · Science Advances
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [3];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [5];  [2];  [6];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [4];  [7];  [8];  [4];  [9] more »;  [10];  [2];  [6];  [4];  [11];  [2] « less
  1. Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States); OSTI
  2. Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (United States)
  3. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  4. National Univ. of Singapore (Singapore)
  5. National Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu (Taiwan)
  6. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
  7. National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan); Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
  8. National Taiwan Univ., Taipei (Taiwan)
  9. National Tsing Hua Univ., Hsinchu (Taiwan); Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan)
  10. Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)
  11. Peking Univ., Beijing (China); Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China)

Here, Weyl semimetals are expected to open up new horizons in physics and materials science because they provide the first realization of Weyl fermions and exhibit protected Fermi arc surface states. However, they had been found to be extremely rare in nature. Recently, a family of compounds, consisting of tantalum arsenide, tantalum phosphide (TaP), niobium arsenide, and niobium phosphide, was predicted as a Weyl semimetal candidates. We experimentally realize a Weyl semimetal state in TaP. Using photoemission spectroscopy, we directly observe the Weyl fermion cones and nodes in the bulk, and the Fermi arcs on the surface. Moreover, we find that the surface states show an unexpectedly rich structure, including both topological Fermi arcs and several topologically trivial closed contours in the vicinity of the Weyl points, which provides a promising platform to study the interplay between topological and trivial surface states on a Weyl semimetal’s surface. We directly demonstrate the bulk-boundary correspondence and establish the topologically nontrivial nature of the Weyl semimetal state in TaP, by resolving the net number of chiral edge modes on a closed path that encloses the Weyl node. This also provides, for the first time, an experimentally practical approach to demonstrating a bulk Weyl fermion from a surface state dispersion measured in photoemission.

Research Organization:
Northeastern Univ., Boston, MA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-07ER46352
OSTI ID:
1434896
Journal Information:
Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 1; ISSN 2375-2548
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Spin polarization and texture of the Fermi arcs in the Weyl Fermion semimetal TaAs text January 2015
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Two-Dimensional Node-Line Semimetals in a Honeycomb-Kagome Lattice text January 2016
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Ultrahigh lattice thermal conductivity in topological semimetal TaN caused by large acoustic-optical gap text January 2017
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