Dynamical conductivity of the Fermi arc and the Volkov-Pankratov states on the surface of Weyl semimetals (original) (raw)
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Quantum oscillations from generic surface Fermi arcs and bulk chiral modes in Weyl semimetals
Scientific reports, 2016
We re-examine the question of quantum oscillations from surface Fermi arcs and chiral modes in Weyl semimetals. By introducing two tools - semiclassical phase-space quantization and a numerical implementation of a layered construction of Weyl semimetals - we discover several important generalizations to previous conclusions that were implicitly tailored to the special case of identical Fermi arcs on top and bottom surfaces. We show that the phase-space quantization picture fixes an ambiguity in the previously utilized energy-time quantization approach and correctly reproduces the numerically calculated quantum oscillations for generic Weyl semimetals with distinctly curved Fermi arcs on the two surfaces. Based on these methods, we identify a 'magic' magnetic-field angle where quantum oscillations become independent of sample thickness, with striking experimental implications. We also analyze the stability of these quantum oscillations to disorder, and show that the high-fiel...
Dissolution of topological Fermi arcs in a dirty Weyl semimetal
Physical Review B
Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have recently attracted a great deal of attention as they provide condensed matter realization of chiral anomaly, feature topologically protected Fermi arc surface states and sustain sharp chiral Weyl quasiparticles up to a critical disorder at which a continuous quantum phase transition (QPT) drives the system into a metallic phase. We here numerically demonstrate that with increasing strength of disorder the Fermi arc gradually looses its sharpness, and close to the WSM-metal QPT it completely dissolves into the metallic bath of the bulk. Predicted topological nature of the WSM-metal QPT and the resulting bulk-boundary correspondence across this transition can directly be observed in ARPES and STM measurements by following the continuous deformation of the Fermi arcs with increasing disorder in recently discovered Weyl materials.
Surface states and arcless angles in twisted Weyl semimetals
Physical Review Research
Fermi arc states are features of Weyl semimetal (WSM) surfaces which are robust due to the topological character of the bulk band structure. We demonstrate that Fermi arcs may undergo profound restructurings when surfaces of different systems with a well-defined twist angle are tunnel-coupled. The twisted WSM interface supports a moiré pattern which may be approximated as a periodic system with large real-space unit cell. States bound to the interface emerge, with interesting consequences for the magneto-oscillations expected when a magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the system surfaces. As the twist angle passes through special "arcless angles", for which open Fermi arc states are absent at the interface, Fermi loops of states confined to the interface may break off, without connecting to bulk states of the WSM. We argue that such states have interesting resonance signatures in the optical conductivity of the system in a magnetic field perpendicular to the interface.
arXiv: Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, 2018
A signature property of Weyl semimetals is the existence of topologically protected surface states - arcs in momentum space that connect Weyl points in the bulk. However, the presence of bulks states makes detection of surface contributions to the transport challenging. Here we present a magnetoresistance study of high-quality samples of the prototypical Weyl semimetal, TaAs. By measuring the Shubnikov de Haas effect, we reveal the presence of a two-dimensional cyclotron orbit. This orbit is quantitatively consistent with the interference of coherent quasiparticles traversing two distinct Fermi arcs on the [001] crystallographic surface. The observation of this effect suggests that high magnetic fields can be used to study not only the transport properties of Fermi arcs, but also the interference of their quantum mechanical wavefunctions.
Discovery of a Weyl Fermion semimetal and topological Fermi arcs
Science (New York, N.Y.), 2015
A Weyl semimetal is a crystal which hosts Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles and admits a topological classification that protects Fermi arc surface states on the boundary of a bulk sample. This unusual electronic structure has deep analogies with particle physics and leads to unique topological properties. We report the experimental discovery of a Weyl semimetal, TaAs. Using photoemission spectroscopy, we directly observe Fermi arcs on the surface, as well as the Weyl fermion cones and Weyl nodes in the bulk of TaAs single crystals. We find that Fermi arcs terminate on the Weyl nodes, consistent with their topological character. Our work opens the field for the experimental study of Weyl fermions in physics and materials science.
Magneto-optical Signatures of Volkov-Pankratov States in Topological Insulators
EPL, 2019
In addition to the usual chiral surface states, massive surface states can arise at a smooth interface between a topological and a trivial bulk insulator. While not subject to topological protection as the chiral states, these massive states, theorized by Volkov and Pankratov in the 1980s, reflect nevertheless emergent Dirac physics at the interface. We study theoretically the magneto-optical response of these surface states, which is strikingly different from that of the bulk states. Most saliently, we show that these states can be identified clearly in the presence of a magnetic field and its orientation with respect to the interface.
Friedel oscillations due to Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals
Physical Review B, 2012
Weyl semimetals harbor unusual surface states known as Fermi arcs, which are essentially disjoint segments of a two dimensional Fermi surface. We describe a prescription for obtaining Fermi arcs of arbitrary shape and connectivity by stacking alternate two dimensional electron and hole Fermi surfaces and adding suitable interlayer coupling. Using this prescription, we compute the local density of states -a quantity directly relevant to scanning tunneling microscopy -on a Weyl semimetal surface in the presence of a point scatterer and present results for a particular model that is expected to apply to pyrochlore iridate Weyl semimetals. For thin samples, Fermi arcs on opposite surfaces conspire to allow nested backscattering, resulting in strong Friedel oscillations on the surface. These oscillations die out as the sample thickness is increased and Fermi arcs from the bottom surface retreat and weak oscillations, due to scattering between the top surface Fermi arcs alone, survive. The surface spectral function -accessible to photoemission experiments -is also computed. In the thermodynamic limit, this calculation can be done analytically and separate contributions from the Fermi arcs and the bulk states can be seen.
Boundary conditions of Weyl semimetals
Progress of Theoretical and Experimental Physics, 2017
We find that generic boundary conditions of the Weyl semimetal are dictated by only a single real parameter in the continuum limit. We determine how the energy dispersions (the Fermi arcs) and the wave functions of edge states depend on this parameter. Lattice models are found to be consistent with our generic observation. Furthermore, the enhanced parameter space of the boundary condition is shown to support a novel topological number.
Anomalous Surface Conductivity of Weyl Semimetals
2021
We calculate the surface dc conductivity of Weyl semimetals and show that it contains an anomalous contribution in addition to a Drude contribution from the Fermi arc. The anomalous part is independent of the surface scattering time, and appears at nonzero temperature and doping (away from the Weyl nodes), increasing quadratically with both. The nontrivial coupling between the surface and the bulk leads to an effective description on the surface that mimics an interacting twodimensional fluid in certain regimes of energy, even in the absence of any explicit scattering on the surface, and is responsible for the anomalous contribution. Remarkably, in a layered Weyl semimetal, the temperature dependent part of the surface conductivity at low temperatures is dominated by the anomalous response which can be probed experimentally to unravel this unusual behavior.
Surface plasmonics of Weyl semimetals
Physical Review B
Smooth interfaces of topological systems are known to host massive surface states in addition to the topologically protected chiral one. We show that in Weyl semimetals these massive states, along with the chiral Fermi arc, strongly alter the form of the Fermi-arc plasmon. Most saliently, they yield further collective plasmonic modes that are absent in a conventional interface. The plasmon modes are completely anisotropic as a consequence of the underlying anisotropy in the surface model and expected to have a clear-cut experimental signature, e.g., in electron-energy loss spectroscopy.