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Register a new userRealization of a Type-II Nodal-Line Semimetal in Mg$_3$Bi$_2$
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Nodal-line semimetals (NLSs) represent a new type of topological semimetallic beyond Weyl and Dirac semimetals in the sense that they host closed loops or open curves of band degeneracies in the Brillouin zone. Parallel to the classification of type-I and type-II Weyl semimetals, there are two types of NLSs. The conventional NLS phase, in which the two bands forming the nodal line have opposite signs for their slopes along any direction perpendicular to the nodal line, has been proposed and realized in many compounds, whereas the exotic type-II NLS is very rare. Our first-principles calculations show that Mg$_3$Bi$_2$ is a material candidate that hosts a single type-II nodal loop around $Gamma$. The band crossing is close to the Fermi level and the two crossing bands have the same sign in their slopes along the radial direction of the loop, indicating the type-II nature of the nodal line. Spin-orbit coupling generates only a small energy gap ($sim$35 meV) at the nodal points and does not negate the band dispersion of Mg$_3$Bi$_2$ that yields the type-II nodal line. Based on this prediction we have synthesized Mg$_3$Bi$_2$ single crystals and confirmed the presence of the type-II nodal lines in the material. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements agree well with our first-principles results and thus establish Mg$_3$Bi$_2$ as an ideal materials platform for studying the exotic properties of type-II nodal line semimetals.
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The nodal line semimetals have attracted much attention due to their unique topological electronic structure and exotic physical properties. A genuine nodal line semimetal is qualified by the presence of Dirac nodes along a line in the momentum space that are protected against the spin-orbit coupling. In addition, it requires that the Dirac points lie close to the Fermi level allowing to dictate the macroscopic physical properties. Although the material realization of nodal line semimetals have been theoretically predicted in numerous compounds, only a few of them have been experimentally verified and the realization of a genuine nodal line semimetal is particularly rare. Here we report the realization of a genuine nodal line semimetal in LaSbTe. We investigated the electronic structure of LaSbTe by band structure calculations and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) measurements. Taking spin-orbit coupling into account, our band structure calculations predict that a nodal line is formed in the boundary surface of the Brillouin zone which is robust and lies close to the Fermi level. The Dirac nodes along the X-R line in momentum space are directly observed in our ARPES measurements and the energies of these Dirac nodes are all close to the Fermi level. These results constitute clear evidence that LaSbTe is a genuine nodal line semimetal,providing a new platform to explore for novel phenomena and possible applications associated with the nodal line semimetals.
Dirac nodal-line semimetals with the linear bands crossing along a line or loop, represent a new topological state of matter. Here, by carrying out magnetotransport measurements and performing first-principle calculations, we demonstrate that such a state has been realized in high-quality single crystals of SrAs3. We obtain the nontrivial pi Berry phase by analysing the Shubnikov-de Haas quantum oscillations. We also observe a robust negative longitudinal magnetoresistance induced by the chiral anomaly. Accompanying first-principles calculations identify that a single hole pocket enclosing the loop nodes is responsible for these observations.
Currently, there is a flurry of research interest on materials with an unconventional electronic structure, and we have already seen significant progress in their understanding and engineering towards real-life applications. The interest erupted with the discovery of graphene and topological insulators in the previous decade. The electrons in graphene simulate massless Dirac Fermions with a linearly dispersing Dirac cone in their band structure, while in topological insulators, the electronic bands wind non-trivially in momentum space giving rise to gapless surface states and bulk bandgap. Weyl semimetals in condensed matter systems are the latest addition to this growing family of topological materials. Weyl Fermions are known in the context of high energy physics since almost the beginning of quantum mechanics. They apparently violate charge conservation rules, displaying the chiral anomaly, with such remarkable properties recently theoretically predicted and experimentally verified to exist as low energy quasiparticle states in certain condensed matter systems. Not only are these new materials extremely important for our fundamental understanding of quantum phenomena, but also they exhibit completely different transport phenomena. For example, massless Fermions are susceptible to scattering from non-magnetic impurities. Dirac semimetals exhibit non-saturating extremely large magnetoresistance as a consequence of their robust electronic bands being protected by time reversal symmetry. These open up whole new possibilities for materials engineering and applications including quantum computing. In this review, we recapitulate some of the outstanding properties of WTe$_2$, namely, its non-saturating titanic magnetoresistance due to perfect electron and hole carrier balance up to a very high magnetic field observed for the very first time. (Continued. Please see the main article).
Topological materials host fascinating low dimensional gapless states at the boundary. As a prominent example, helical topological edge states (TESs) of two-dimensional topological insulators (2DTIs) and their stacked three-dimensional (3D) equivalent, weak topological insulators (WTIs), have sparked research enthusiasm due to their potential application in the next generation of electronics/spintronics with low dissipation. Here, we propose layered superconducting material CaSn as a WTI with nontrivial Z2 as well as nodal line semimetal protected by crystalline non-symmorphic symmetry. Our systematic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) investigation on the electronic structure exhibits excellent agreement with the calculation. Furthermore, scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) at the surface step edge shows signatures of the expected TES. These integrated evidences from ARPES, STM/STS measurement and corresponding ab initio calculation strongly support the existence of TES in the non-symmorphic nodal line semimetal CaSn, which may become a versatile material platform to realize multiple exotic electronic states as well as topological superconductivity.
Nodal line semimetals (NLSs) have attracted broad interest in current research. In most of existing NLSs, the intrinsic properties of nodal lines are greatly destroyed because nodal lines usually suffer sizable gaps induced by non-negligible spin-orbit coupling (SOC). In this work,we propose the topological nodal line electrides (TNLEs), which achieve electronic structures of nodal lines and electrides simultaneously, provide new insight on designing excellent NLSs nearly immune from SOC. Since the states near the Fermi level are most contributed by nonnucleus-bounded interstitial electrons, nodal lines in TNLEs manifest extremely small SOCinduced gap even possessing heavy elements. Especially, we propose the family of A2B (A = Ca, Sr, Ba; B= As, Sb, Bi) materials are realistic TNLEs with negligible SOC-induced gaps, which can play as excellent platforms to study the intrinsic properties of TNLEs
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