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Discovery of a Weyl fermion state with Fermi arcs in niobium arsenide
Authors:
Su-Yang
Xu
(Princeton University)
,
Nasser
Alidoust
(Princeton University)
,
Ilya
Belopolski
(Princeton University)
,
Zhujun
Yuan
(Peking University)
,
Guang
Bian
(Princeton University)
,
Tay-Rong
Chang
(Princeton University)
,
Hao
Zheng
(Princeton University)
,
Vladimir N.
Strocov
(Paul Scherrer Institute)
,
Daniel
Sanchez
(Princeton University)
,
Guoqing
Chang
(National University of Singapore)
,
Chenglong
Zhang
(Peking University)
,
Daixiang
Mou
(US DOE Ames)
,
Yun
Wu
(US DOE Ames)
,
Lunan
Huang
(US DOE Ames)
,
Chi-Cheng
Lee
(National University of Singapore)
,
Shin-Ming
Huang
(National University of Singapore)
,
Baokai
Wang
(National University of Singapore)
,
Arun
Bansil
(Northeastern University)
,
Horng-Tay
Jeng
(National Tsing Hua University)
,
Titus
Neupert
(Princeton University)
,
Adam
Kaminski
(US DOE Ames)
,
Hsin
Lin
(National University of Singapore)
,
Shuang
Jia
(Peking University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter (China))
,
M.
Zahid Hasan
(Princeton University)
Co-authored by industrial partner:
No
Type:
Journal Paper
Journal:
Nature Physics
, VOL 11
, PAGES 748 - 754
State:
Published (Approved)
Published:
August 2015
Diamond Proposal Number(s):
10074
Abstract: Three types of fermions play a fundamental role in our understanding of nature: Dirac, Majorana and Weyl. Whereas Dirac fermions have been known for decades, the latter two have not been observed as any fundamental particle in high-energy physics, and have emerged as a much-sought-out treasure in condensed matter physics. A Weyl semimetal is a novel crystal whose low-energy electronic excitations behave as Weyl fermions. It has received worldwide interest and is believed to open the next era of condensed matter physics after graphene and three-dimensional topological insulators. However, experimental research has been held back because Weyl semimetals are extremely rare in nature. Here, we present the experimental discovery of the Weyl semimetal state in an inversion-symmetry-breaking single-crystalline solid, niobium arsenide (NbAs). Utilizing the combination of soft X-ray and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, we systematically study both the surface and bulk electronic structure of NbAs. We experimentally observe both the Weyl cones in the bulk and the Fermi arcs on the surface of this system. Our ARPES data, in agreement with our theoretical band structure calculations, identify the Weyl semimetal state in NbAs, which provides a real platform to test the potential of Weyltronics.
Journal Keywords: Topological insulators
Subject Areas:
Physics,
Materials
Instruments:
I05-ARPES
Other Facilities: 4.0.3, 10.0.1, 12.0.1 at Advanced Light Source (ALS); 5-4 at Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
Added On:
19/02/2016 12:01
Discipline Tags:
Quantum Materials
Physics
Hard condensed matter - structures
Materials Science
Technical Tags:
Spectroscopy
Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES)