Search Results
Multiple Dirac cones at the surface of the topological metal LaBi
2017, Nayak, Jayita, Martinsson, Bengt G., Kumar, Nitesh, Shekhar, Chandra, Singh, Sanjay, Fink, Jörg, Rienks, Emile E.D., Fecher, Gerhard H., Parkin, Stuart S.P., Yan, Binghai, Felser, Claudia
The rare-earth monopnictide LaBi exhibits exotic magneto-transport properties, including an extremely large and anisotropic magnetoresistance. Experimental evidence for topological surface states is still missing although band inversions have been postulated to induce a topological phase in LaBi. In this work, we have revealed the existence of surface states of LaBi through the observation of three Dirac cones: two coexist at the corners and one appears at the centre of the Brillouin zone, by employing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy in conjunction with ab initio calculations. The odd number of surface Dirac cones is a direct consequence of the odd number of band inversions in the bulk band structure, thereby proving that LaBi is a topological, compensated semimetal, which is equivalent to a time-reversal invariant topological insulator. Our findings provide insight into the topological surface states of LaBi’s semi-metallicity and related magneto-transport properties.
Quasi one dimensional dirac electrons on the surface of Ru2 Sn3
2014, Gibson, Q.D., Evtushinsky, D., Yaresko, A.N., Zabolotnyy, V.B., Ali, Mazhar N., Fuccillo, M.K., Van den Brink, J., Büchner, B., Cava, R.J., Borisenko, S.V.
We present an ARPES study of the surface states of Ru2Sn3, a new type of a strong 3D topological insulator (TI). In contrast to currently known 3D TIs, which display two-dimensional Dirac cones with linear isotropic dispersions crossing through one point in the surface Brillouin Zone (SBZ), the surface states on Ru2Sn3 are highly anisotropic, displaying an almost flat dispersion along certain high-symmetry directions. This results in quasi-one dimensional (1D) Dirac electronic states throughout the SBZ that we argue are inherited from features in the bulk electronic structure of Ru2Sn3 where the bulk conduction bands are highly anisotropic. Unlike previous experimentally characterized TIs, the topological surface states of Ru2Sn3 are the result of a d-p band inversion rather than an s-p band inversion. The observed surface states are the topological equivalent to a single 2D Dirac cone at the surface Brillouin zone.
Topological signatures in the electronic structure of graphene spirals
2013, Avdoshenko, Stas M., Koskinen, Pekka, Sevinçli, Haldun, Popov, Alexey A., Rocha, Claudia G.
Topology is familiar mostly from mathematics, but also natural sciences have found its concepts useful. Those concepts have been used to explain several natural phenomena in biology and physics, and they are particularly relevant for the electronic structure description of topological insulators and graphene systems. Here, we introduce topologically distinct graphene forms - graphene spirals - and employ density-functional theory to investigate their geometric and electronic properties. We found that the spiral topology gives rise to an intrinsic Rashba spin-orbit splitting. Through a Hamiltonian constrained by space curvature, graphene spirals have topologically protected states due to time-reversal symmetry. In addition, we argue that the synthesis of such graphene spirals is feasible and can be achieved through advanced bottom-up experimental routes that we indicate in this work.
Mapping the band structure of GeSbTe phase change alloys around the Fermi level
2018, Kellner, J., Bihlmayer, G., Liebmann, M., Otto, S., Pauly, C., Boschker, J.E., Bragaglia, V., Cecchi, S., Wang, R.N., Deringer, V.L., Küppers, P., Bhaskar, P., Golias, E., Sánchez-Barriga, J., Dronskowski, R., Fauster, T., Rader, O., Calarco, R., Morgenstern, M.
Phase change alloys are used for non-volatile random-access memories exploiting the conductivity contrast between amorphous and metastable, crystalline phase. However, this contrast has never been directly related to the electronic band structure. Here we employ photoelectron spectroscopy to map the relevant bands for metastable, epitaxial GeSbTe films. The constant energy surfaces of the valence band close to the Fermi level are hexagonal tubes with little dispersion perpendicular to the (111) surface. The electron density responsible for transport belongs to the tails of this bulk valence band, which is broadened by disorder, i.e., the Fermi level is 100 meV above the valence band maximum. This result is consistent with transport data of such films in terms of charge carrier density and scattering time. In addition, we find a state in the bulk band gap with linear dispersion, which might be of topological origin.
Berry phase and band structure analysis of the Weyl semimetal NbP
2016, Sergelius, Philip, Gooth, Johannes, Bäßler, Svenja, Zierold, Robert, Wiegand, Christoph, Niemann, Anna, Reith, Heiko, Shekhar, Chandra, Felser, Claudia, Yan, Binghai, Nielsch, Kornelius
Weyl semimetals are often considered the 3D-analogon of graphene or topological insulators. The evaluation of quantum oscillations in these systems remains challenging because there are often multiple conduction bands. We observe de Haas-van Alphen oscillations with several frequencies in a single crystal of the Weyl semimetal niobium phosphide. For each fundamental crystal axis, we can fit the raw data to a superposition of sinusoidal functions, which enables us to calculate the characteristic parameters of all individual bulk conduction bands using Fourier transform with an analysis of the temperature and magnetic field-dependent oscillation amplitude decay. Our experimental results indicate that the band structure consists of Dirac bands with low cyclotron mass, a non-trivial Berry phase and parabolic bands with a higher effective mass and trivial Berry phase.
Plethora of tunable Weyl fermions in kagome magnet Fe3Sn2 thin films
2022, Ren, Zheng, Li, Hong, Sharma, Shrinkhala, Bhattarai, Dipak, Zhao, He, Rachmilowitz, Bryan, Bahrami, Faranak, Tafti, Fazel, Fang, Shiang, Ghimire, Madhav Prasad, Wang, Ziqiang, Zeljkovic, Ilija
Interplay of magnetism and electronic band topology in unconventional magnets enables the creation and fine control of novel electronic phenomena. In this work, we use scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy to study thin films of a prototypical kagome magnet Fe3Sn2. Our experiments reveal an unusually large number of densely-spaced spectroscopic features straddling the Fermi level. These are consistent with signatures of low-energy Weyl fermions and associated topological Fermi arc surface states predicted by theory. By measuring their response as a function of magnetic field, we discover a pronounced evolution in energy tied to the magnetization direction. Electron scattering and interference imaging further demonstrates the tunable nature of a subset of related electronic states. Our experiments provide a direct visualization of how in-situ spin reorientation drives changes in the electronic density of states of the Weyl fermion band structure. Combined with previous reports of massive Dirac fermions, flat bands, and electronic nematicity, our work establishes Fe3Sn2 as an interesting platform that harbors an extraordinarily wide array of topological and correlated electron phenomena.
Correlation between topological band character and chemical bonding in a Bi14Rh3I9-based family of insulators
2016, Rasche, Bertold, Isaeva, Anna, Ruck, Michael, Koepernik, Klaus, Richter, Manuel, van den Brink, Jeroen
Recently the presence of topologically protected edge-states in Bi14Rh3I9 was confirmed by scanning tunnelling microscopy consolidating this compound as a weak 3D topological insulator (TI). Here, we present a density-functional-theory-based study on a family of TIs derived from the Bi14Rh3I9 parent structure via substitution of Ru, Pd, Os, Ir and Pt for Rh. Comparative analysis of the band-structures throughout the entire series is done by means of a unified minimalistic tight-binding model that evinces strong similarity between the quantum-spin-Hall (QSH) layer in Bi14Rh3I9 and graphene in terms of -molecular orbitals. Topologically non-trivial energy gaps are found for the Ir-, Rh-, Pt- and Pd-based systems, whereas the Os- and Ru-systems remain trivial. Furthermore, the energy position of the metal -band centre is identified as the parameter which governs the evolution of the topological character of the band structure through the whole family of TIs. The -band position is shown to correlate with the chemical bonding within the QSH layers, thus revealing how the chemical nature of the constituents affects the topological band character.