No Arabic abstract
Weyl semimetals expand research on topologically protected transport by adding bulk Berry monopoles with linearly dispersing electronic states and topologically robust, gapless surface Fermi arcs terminating on bulk node projections. Here, we show how the Nernst effect, combining entropy with charge transport, gives a unique signature for the presence of Dirac bands. The Nernst thermopower of NbP (maximum of 800 microV K-1 at 9 T, 109 K) exceeds its conventional thermopower by a hundredfold and is significantly larger than the thermopower of traditional thermoelectric materials. The Nernst effect has a pronounced maximum near T_M=90 +/- 20 K=mu_0/kB (mu_0 is chemical potential at T=0 K). A self-consistent theory without adjustable parameters shows that this results from electrochemical potential pinning to the Weyl point energy at T>=TM, driven by charge neutrality and Dirac band symmetry. Temperature and field dependences of the Nernst effect, an even function of the charge polarity, result from the intrinsically bipolar nature of the Weyl fermions. Through this study, we offer an understanding of the temperature dependence of the position of the electrochemical potential vis-a-vis the Weyl point, and we show a direct connection between topology and the Nernst effect, a potentially robust experimental tool for investigating topological states and the chiral anomaly.
The spin Nernst effect describes a transverse spin current induced by the longitudinal thermal gradient in a system with the spin-orbit coupling. Here we study the spin Nernst effect in a mesoscopic four-terminal cross-bar Weyl semimetal device under a perpendicular magnetic field. By using the tight-binding Hamiltonian combining with the nonequilibrium Greens function method, the three elements of the spin current in the transverse leads and then spin Nernst coefficients are obtained. The results show that the spin Nernst effect in the Weyl semimetal has the essential difference with the traditional one: The z direction spin currents is zero without the magnetic field while it appears under the magnetic field, and the x and y direction spin currents in the two transverse leads flows out or flows in together, in contrary to the traditional spin Nernst effect, in which the spin current is induced by the spin-orbit coupling and flows out from one lead and flows in on the other. So we call it the anomalous spin Nernst effect. In addition, we show that the Weyl semimetals have the center-reversal-type symmetry, the mirror-reversal-type symmetry and the electron-hole-type symmetry, which lead to the spin Nernst coefficients being odd function or even function of the Fermi energy, the magnetic field and the transverse terminals. Moreover, the spin Nernst effect in the Weyl semimetals are strongly anisotropic and its coefficients are strongly dependent on both the direction of thermal gradient and the direction of the transverse lead connection. Three non-equivalent connection modes (x-z, z-x and x-y modes) are studied in detail, and the spin Nernst coefficients for three different modes exhibit very different behaviors. These strongly anisotropic behaviors of the spin Nernst effect can be used as the characterization of magnetic Weyl semimetals.
We show that hybrid Dirac and Weyl semimetals can be realized in a three-dimensional Luttinger semimetal with quadratic band touching (QBT). We illustrate this using periodic kicking scheme. In particular, we focus on a momentum-dependent drivings (nonuniform driving) and demonstrate the realization of various hybrid Dirac and Weyl semimetals. We identify a unique hybrid dispersion Dirac semimetal with two nodes, where one of the nodes is linear while the other is dispersed quadraticlly. Next, we show that by tilting QBT via periodic driving and in the presence of an external magnetic field, one can realize various single/double hybrid Weyl semimetals depending on the strength of external field. Finally, we note that in principle, phases that are found in this work could also be realized by employing the appropriate electronic interactions.
The magneto-thermoelectric properties of Heusler compound thin films are very diverse. Here, we discuss the anomalous Nernst response of Co$_2$MnGa thin films. We systematically study the anomalous Nernst coefficient as a function of temperature, and we show that unlike the anomalous Hall effect, the anomalous Nernst effect in Co$_2$MnGa strongly varies with temperature. We exploit the on-chip thermometry technique to quantify the thermal gradient, which enables us to directly evaluate the anomalous Nernst coefficient. We compare these results to a reference CoFeB thin film. We show that the 50-nm-thick Co$_2$MnGa films exhibit a large anomalous Nernst effect of -2$mu$V/K at 300 K, whereas the 10-nm-thick Co$_2$MnGa film exhibits a significantly smaller anomalous Nernst coefficient despite having similar volume magnetizations. These findings suggest that the microscopic origin of the anomalous Nernst effect in Co$_2$MnGa is complex and may contain contributions from skew-scattering, side-jump or intrinsic Berry phase. In any case, the large anomalous Nernst coefficent of Co$_2$MnGa thin films at room temperature makes this material system a very promising candidate for efficient spin-caloritronic devices.
The surface Fermi arc, as a hallmark of Weyl semimetals (WSMs), has been well known in current research, but it remains a challenge to unveil novel phenomena associated with the Fermi arc. Here, we predict a heretofore unrecognized process in WSMs, namely, the photoinduced transition between the bulk states and the Fermi arc. We find this process is significant and can lead to a large effective three-dimensional shift current on the boundaries with the Fermi arc in wide terahertz range. Moreover, due to the low symmetry of the boundaries, the surface photogalvanic effect predicted here can appear in a large class of WSMs that do not have bulk shift current. Hence, our work not only unveils a hidden photogalvanic effect in WSMs but also suggests that all the WSMs are promising material candidates for developing efficient terahertz photodetectors.
We suggest the possibility of a linear magnetochiral effect in time reversal breaking Weyl semimetals. Generically the magnetochiral effect consists in a simultaneous linear dependence of the magnetotransport coefficients with the magnetic field and a momentum vector. This simultaneous dependence is allowed by the Onsager reciprocity relations, being the separation vector between the Weyl nodes the vector that plays such role. As a side consequence, we find a non vanishing positive longitudinal magnetoconductivity at Fermi energies above the point where the chirality of the Weyl nodes is globally lost.