Handedness-dependent quasiparticle interference in the two enantiomers of the topological chiral semimetal PdGa

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17261-x

Authors: Paolo Sessi (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) , Feng-ren Fan (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids) , Felix Küster (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) , Kaustuv Manna (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids) , Niels B. M. Schroeter (Swiss Light Source) , Jing-rong Ji (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) , Samuel Stolz (EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology; EPFL) , Jonas A. Krieger (Swiss Light Source; Paul Scherrer Institut; ETH Zurich) , Ding Pei (University of Oxford) , Timur K. Kim (Diamond Light Source) , Pavel Dudin (Diamond Light Source) , Cephise Cacho (Diamond Light Source) , Remo N. Widmer (EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) , Horst Borrmann (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids) , Wujun Shi (ShanghaiTech University) , Kai Chang (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics) , Yan Sun (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids) , Claudia Felser (Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids) , Stuart S. P. Parkin (Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Nature Communications , VOL 11

State: Published (Approved)
Published: July 2020
Diamond Proposal Number(s): 2470 , 20617

Abstract: It has recently been proposed that combining chirality with topological band theory results in a totally new class of fermions. Understanding how these unconventional quasiparticles propagate and interact remains largely unexplored so far. Here, we use scanning tunneling microscopy to visualize the electronic properties of the prototypical chiral topological semimetal PdGa. We reveal chiral quantum interference patterns of opposite spiraling directions for the two PdGa enantiomers, a direct manifestation of the change of sign of their Chern number. Additionally, we demonstrate that PdGa remains topologically non-trivial over a large energy range, experimentally detecting Fermi arcs in an energy window of more than 1.6 eV that is symmetrically centered around the Fermi level. These results are a consequence of the deep connection between chirality in real and reciprocal space in this class of materials, and, thereby, establish PdGa as an ideal topological chiral semimetal.

Journal Keywords: Electronic properties and materials; Topological insulators

Subject Areas: Materials, Physics


Instruments: I05-ARPES

Documents:
s41467-020-17261-x.pdf

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