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Register a new userTime-Reversal Symmetry Breaking Type-II Weyl State in YbMnBi2
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Detection of Dirac, Majorana and Weyl fermions in real materials may significantly strengthen the bridge between high-energy and condensed-matter physics. While the presence of Dirac fermions is well established in graphene and topological insulators, Majorana particles have been reported recently and evidence for Weyl fermions in non-centrosymmetric crystals has been found only a couple of months ago, the magnetic Weyl fermions are still elusive despite numerous theoretical predictions and intense experimental search. In order to detect a time-reversal symmetry breaking Weyl state we designed two materials with Fermi velocities superior to that of graphene and present here the experimental evidence of the realization of such a state in one of them, YbMnBi2. We model the time reversal symmetry breaking observed by magnetization measurements by a canted antiferromagnetic state and find a number of Weyl points both above and below the Fermi level. Using angle-resolved photoemission, we directly observe these latter Weyl points and a hallmark of the exotic state - the arc of the surface states which connects these points. Our results not only provide a fundamental link between the two areas of physics, but also demonstrate the practical way to design novel materials with exotic properties.
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Weyl semimetals host linear energy dispersions around Weyl nodes, as well as monopoles of Berry curvature in momentum space around these points. These features give rise to unique transport signatures in a Weyl semimetal, such as transverse transport without an applied magnetic field, known as anomalous transport. The type-II Weyl semimetal, recently experimentally demonstrated in several materials, is classified by a tilting of the Weyl nodes. This paper provides a theoretical study on thermoelectric transport in time-reversal breaking type-II Weyl semimetals. Our results examine the balance between anomalous and non-anomalous contributions to the Nernst effect when subject to an external magnetic field. We also show how increasing scattering times have on enhancing effect on thermoelectric transport in these materials. Since a temperature-dependent chemical potential has been theoretically shown to be paramount when considering anomalous transport, we also study how similar considerations impact the Nernst thermopower in the non-anomalous case.
Time-reversal (T) symmetry breaking is a fundamental physics concept underpinning a broad science and technology area, including topological magnets, axion physics, dissipationless Hall currents, or spintronic memories. A best known conventional model of macroscopic T-symmetry breaking is a ferromagnetic order of itinerant Bloch electrons with an isotropic spin interaction in momentum space. Anisotropic electron interactions, on the other hand, have been a domain of correlated quantum phases, such as the T-invariant nematics or unconventional superconductors. Here we report discovery of a broken-T phase of itinerant Bloch electrons with an unconventional anisotropic spin-momentum interaction, whose staggered nature leads to the formation of two ferromagnetic-like valleys in the momentum space with opposite spin splittings. We describe qualitatively the effect by deriving a non-relativistic single-particle Hamiltonian model. Next, we identify the unconventional staggered spin-momentum interaction by first-principles electronic structure calculations in a four-sublattice antiferromagnet Mn5Si3 with a collinear checkerboard magnetic order. We show that the staggered spin-momentum interaction is set by nonrelativistic spin-symmetries which were previously omitted in relativistic physics classifications of spin interactions and topological quasiparticles. Our measurements of a spontaneous Hall effect in epilayers of antiferromagnetic Mn5Si3 with vanishing magnetization are consistent with our theory predictions. Bloch electrons with the unconventional staggered spin interaction, compatible with abundant low atomic-number materials, strong spin-coherence, and collinear antiferromagnetic order open unparalleled possibilities for realizing T-symmetry broken spin and topological quantum phases.
Quantum topological materials, exemplified by topological insulators, three-dimensional Dirac semimetals and Weyl semimetals, have attracted much attention recently because of their unique electronic structure and physical properties. Very lately it is proposed that the three-dimensional Weyl semimetals can be further classified into two types. In the type I Weyl semimetals, a topologically protected linear crossing of two bands, i.e., a Weyl point, occurs at the Fermi level resulting in a point-like Fermi surface. In the type II Weyl semimetals, the Weyl point emerges from a contact of an electron and a hole pocket at the boundary resulting in a highly tilted Weyl cone. In type II Weyl semimetals, the Lorentz invariance is violated and a fundamentally new kind of Weyl Fermions is produced that leads to new physical properties. WTe2 is interesting because it exhibits anomalously large magnetoresistance. It has ignited a new excitement because it is proposed to be the first candidate of realizing type II Weyl Fermions. Here we report our angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) evidence on identifying the type II Weyl Fermion state in WTe2. By utilizing our latest generation laser-based ARPES system with superior energy and momentum resolutions, we have revealed a full picture on the electronic structure of WTe2. Clear surface state has been identified and its connection with the bulk electronic states in the momentum and energy space shows a good agreement with the calculated band structures with the type II Weyl states. Our results provide spectroscopic evidence on the observation of type II Weyl states in WTe2. It has laid a foundation for further exploration of novel phenomena and physical properties in the type II Weyl semimetals.
We study the energy spectra and wavefunctions of graphene rings formed from metallic armchair ribbons, near zero energy, to search for properties which may be identified with effective broken time reversal symmetry (EBTRS). Appropriately chosen corner junctions are shown to impose phase shifts in the wavefunctions that at low energies have the same effect as effective flux tubes passing near the ribbon surface. Closing the ribbon into a ring captures this flux and yields properties that may be understood as signatures of EBTRS. These include a gap in the spectrum around zero energy, which can be removed by the application of real magnetic flux through the ring. Spectra of five and seven sided rings are also examined, and it is shown these do not have particle-hole symmetry, which may also be understood as a consequence of EBTRS, and is connected to the curvature induced in the system when such rings are formed. Effects of deviations from the ideal geometries on the spectra are also examined.
Fascinating phenomena have been known to arise from the Dirac theory of relativistic quantum mechanics, which describes high energy particles having linear dispersion relations. Electrons in solids usually have non-relativistic dispersion relations but their quantum excitations can mimic relativistic effects. In topological insulators, electrons have both a linear dispersion relation, the Dirac behavior, on the surface and a non-relativistic energy dispersion in the bulk. Topological phases of matter have attracted much interest, particularly broken-symmetry phases in topological insulator materials. Here, we report by Nb doping that the topological insulator Bi2Se3 can be turned into a bulk type-II superconductor while the Dirac surface dispersion in the normal state is preserved. A macroscopic magnetic ordering appears below the superconducting critical temperature of 3.2 K indicating a spontaneous spin rotation symmetry breaking of the Nb magnetic moments. Even though such a magnetic order may appear at the edge of the superconductor, it is mediated by superconductivity and presents a novel phase of matter which gives rise to a zero-field Hall effect.
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