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Title: Assessing Nontrivial Topology in Weyl Semimetals by Dichroic Photoemission

Abstract

The electronic structure of Weyl semimetals features Berry flux monopoles in the bulk and Fermi arcs at the surface. While angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) is successfully used to map the bulk and surface bands, it remains a challenge to explicitly resolve and pinpoint these topological features. Here we combine state-of-the-art photoemission theory and experiments over a wide range of excitation energies for the Weyl semimetals TaAs and TaP. Further, our results show that simple surface-band-counting schemes, proposed previously to identify nonzero Chern numbers, are ambiguous due to pronounced momentum-dependent spectral weight variations and the pronounced surface-bulk hybridization. Instead, our findings indicate that dichroic ARPES provides an improved approach to identify Fermi arcs but requires an accurate description of the photoelectron final state.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Univ. of Wurzburg (Germany)
  2. Univ. zu Kiel (Germany); Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg (Germany). Ruprecht Haensel Lab.
  3. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
  4. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab); FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE; Würzburg-Dresden Cluster of Excellence on Complexity and Topology in Quantum Matter; German Research Foundation (DFG)
OSTI Identifier:
1909093
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; EXC 2147; SFB1170
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review Letters
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 129; Journal Issue: 24; Journal ID: ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; electronic structure; Fermi surface; surface states; topological materials; Weyl semimetal; angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy; density functional theory; Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker method; topology

Citation Formats

Schusser, Jakub, Bentmann, Hendrik, Ünzelmann, Maxmillian, Figgemeier, Tim, Min, Chul -Hee, Moser, Simon, Neu, Jenn  N., Siegrist, Theo, and Reinert, F. Assessing Nontrivial Topology in Weyl Semimetals by Dichroic Photoemission. United States: N. p., 2022. Web. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.129.246404.
Schusser, Jakub, Bentmann, Hendrik, Ünzelmann, Maxmillian, Figgemeier, Tim, Min, Chul -Hee, Moser, Simon, Neu, Jenn  N., Siegrist, Theo, & Reinert, F. Assessing Nontrivial Topology in Weyl Semimetals by Dichroic Photoemission. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.129.246404
Schusser, Jakub, Bentmann, Hendrik, Ünzelmann, Maxmillian, Figgemeier, Tim, Min, Chul -Hee, Moser, Simon, Neu, Jenn  N., Siegrist, Theo, and Reinert, F. Fri . "Assessing Nontrivial Topology in Weyl Semimetals by Dichroic Photoemission". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.129.246404. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1909093.
@article{osti_1909093,
title = {Assessing Nontrivial Topology in Weyl Semimetals by Dichroic Photoemission},
author = {Schusser, Jakub and Bentmann, Hendrik and Ünzelmann, Maxmillian and Figgemeier, Tim and Min, Chul -Hee and Moser, Simon and Neu, Jenn  N. and Siegrist, Theo and Reinert, F.},
abstractNote = {The electronic structure of Weyl semimetals features Berry flux monopoles in the bulk and Fermi arcs at the surface. While angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES) is successfully used to map the bulk and surface bands, it remains a challenge to explicitly resolve and pinpoint these topological features. Here we combine state-of-the-art photoemission theory and experiments over a wide range of excitation energies for the Weyl semimetals TaAs and TaP. Further, our results show that simple surface-band-counting schemes, proposed previously to identify nonzero Chern numbers, are ambiguous due to pronounced momentum-dependent spectral weight variations and the pronounced surface-bulk hybridization. Instead, our findings indicate that dichroic ARPES provides an improved approach to identify Fermi arcs but requires an accurate description of the photoelectron final state.},
doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.129.246404},
journal = {Physical Review Letters},
number = 24,
volume = 129,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2022},
month = {Fri Dec 09 00:00:00 EST 2022}
}

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