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Tunable positions of Weyl nodes via magnetism and pressure in the ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi
2024, Cheng, Erjian, Yan, Limin, Shi, Xianbiao, Lou, Rui, Fedorov, Alexander, Behnami, Mahdi, Yuan, Jian, Yang, Pengtao, Wang, Bosen, Cheng, Jin-Guang, Xu, Yuanji, Xu, Yang, Xia, Wei, Pavlovskii, Nikolai, Peets, Darren C., Zhao, Weiwei, Wan, Yimin, Burkhardt, Ulrich, Guo, Yanfeng, Li, Shiyan, Felser, Claudia, Yang, Wenge, Büchner, Bernd
The noncentrosymmetric ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlSi with simultaneous space-inversion and time-reversal symmetry breaking provides a unique platform for exploring novel topological states. Here, by employing multiple experimental techniques, we demonstrate that ferromagnetism and pressure can serve as efficient parameters to tune the positions of Weyl nodes in CeAlSi. At ambient pressure, a magnetism-facilitated anomalous Hall/Nernst effect (AHE/ANE) is uncovered. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements demonstrated that the Weyl nodes with opposite chirality are moving away from each other upon entering the ferromagnetic phase. Under pressure, by tracing the pressure evolution of AHE and band structure, we demonstrate that pressure could also serve as a pivotal knob to tune the positions of Weyl nodes. Moreover, multiple pressure-induced phase transitions are also revealed. These findings indicate that CeAlSi provides a unique and tunable platform for exploring exotic topological physics and electron correlations, as well as catering to potential applications, such as spintronics.
Signatures of a magnetic-field-induced Lifshitz transition in the ultra-quantum limit of the topological semimetal ZrTe5
2022, Galeski, S., Legg, H.F., Wawrzyńczak, R., Förster, T., Zherlitsyn, S., Gorbunov, D., Uhlarz, M., Lozano, P.M., Li, Q., Gu, G.D., Felser, C., Wosnitza, J., Meng, T., Gooth, J.
The quantum limit (QL) of an electron liquid, realised at strong magnetic fields, has long been proposed to host a wealth of strongly correlated states of matter. Electronic states in the QL are, for example, quasi-one dimensional (1D), which implies perfectly nested Fermi surfaces prone to instabilities. Whereas the QL typically requires unreachably strong magnetic fields, the topological semimetal ZrTe5 has been shown to reach the QL at fields of only a few Tesla. Here, we characterize the QL of ZrTe5 at fields up to 64 T by a combination of electrical-transport and ultrasound measurements. We find that the Zeeman effect in ZrTe5 enables an efficient tuning of the 1D Landau band structure with magnetic field. This results in a Lifshitz transition to a 1D Weyl regime in which perfect charge neutrality can be achieved. Since no instability-driven phase transitions destabilise the 1D electron liquid for the investigated field strengths and temperatures, our analysis establishes ZrTe5 as a thoroughly understood platform for potentially inducing more exotic interaction-driven phases at lower temperatures.
Resonating holes vs molecular spin-orbit coupled states in group-5 lacunar spinels
2023, Petersen, Thorben, Bhattacharyya, Pritam, Rößler, Ulrich K., Hozoi, Liviu
The valence electronic structure of magnetic centers is one of the factors that determines the characteristics of a magnet. This may refer to orbital degeneracy, as for jeff = 1/2 Kitaev magnets, or near-degeneracy, e.g., involving the third and fourth shells in cuprate superconductors. Here we explore the inner structure of magnetic moments in group-5 lacunar spinels, fascinating materials featuring multisite magnetic units in the form of tetrahedral tetramers. Our quantum chemical analysis reveals a very colorful landscape, much richer than the single-electron, single-configuration description applied so far to all group-5 GaM4X8 chalcogenides, and clarifies the basic multiorbital correlations on M4 tetrahedral clusters: while for V strong correlations yield a wave-function that can be well described in terms of four V4+V3+V3+V3+ resonant valence structures, for Nb and Ta a picture of dressed molecular-orbital jeff = 3/2 entities is more appropriate. These internal degrees of freedom likely shape vibronic couplings, phase transitions, and the magneto-electric properties in each of these systems.
Collapse of layer dimerization in the photo-induced hidden state of 1T-TaS2
2020, Stahl, Quirin, Kusch, Maximilian, Heinsch, Florian, Garbarino, Gaston, Kretzschmar, Norman, Hanff, Kerstin, Rossnagel, Kai, Geck, Jochen, Ritschel, Tobias
Photo-induced switching between collective quantum states of matter is a fascinating rising field with exciting opportunities for novel technologies. Presently, very intensively studied examples in this regard are nanometer-thick single crystals of the layered material 1T-TaS2, where picosecond laser pulses can trigger a fully reversible insulator-to-metal transition (IMT). This IMT is believed to be connected to the switching between metastable collective quantum states, but the microscopic nature of this so-called hidden quantum state remained largely elusive up to now. Here, we characterize the hidden quantum state of 1T-TaS2 by means of state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction and show that the laser-driven IMT involves a marked rearrangement of the charge and orbital order in the direction perpendicular to the TaS2-layers. More specifically, we identify the collapse of interlayer molecular orbital dimers as a key mechanism for this non-thermal collective transition between two truly long-range ordered electronic crystals.