No Arabic abstract
We study the dynamics of Dirac and Weyl electrons in disordered point-node semimetals. The ballistic feature of the transport is demonstrated by simulating the wave-packet dynamics on lattice models. We show that the ballistic transport survives under a considerable strength of disorder up to the semimetal-metal transition point, which indicates the robustness of point-node semimetals against disorder. We also visualize the robustness of the nodal points and linear dispersion under broken translational symmetry. The speed of the wave packets slows down with increasing disorder strength, and vanishes toward the critical strength of disorder, hence becoming the order parameter. The obtained critical behavior of the speed of the wave packets is consistent with that predicted by the scaling conjecture.
We numerically study the effect of short ranged potential disorder on massless noninteracting three-dimensional Dirac and Weyl fermions, with a focus on the question of the proposed quantum critical point separating the semimetal and diffusive metal phases. We determine the properties of the eigenstates of the disordered Dirac Hamiltonian ($H$) and exactly calculate the density of states (DOS) near zero energy, using a combination of Lanczos on $H^2$ and the kernel polynomial method on $H$. We establish the existence of two distinct types of low energy eigenstates contributing to the disordered density of states in the weak disorder semimetal regime. These are (i) typical eigenstates that are well described by linearly dispersing perturbatively dressed Dirac states, and (ii) nonperturbative rare eigenstates that are weakly-dispersive and quasi-localized in the real space regions with the largest (and rarest) local random potential. Using twisted boundary conditions, we are able to systematically find and study these two types of eigenstates. We find that the Dirac states contribute low energy peaks in the finite-size DOS that arise from the clean eigenstates which shift and broaden in the presence of disorder. On the other hand, we establish that the rare quasi-localized eigenstates contribute a nonzero background DOS which is only weakly energy-dependent near zero energy and is exponentially small at weak disorder. We find that the expected semimetal to diffusive metal quantum critical point is converted to an {it avoided} quantum criticality that is rounded out by nonperturbative effects, with no signs of any singular behavior in the DOS near the Dirac energy. We discuss the implications of our results for disordered Dirac and Weyl semimetals, and reconcile the large body of existing numerical work showing quantum criticality with the existence of the rare region effects.
Disorder in Weyl semimetals and superconductors is surprisingly subtle, attracting attention and competing theories in recent years. In this brief review, we discuss the current theoretical understanding of the effects of short-ranged, quenched disorder on the low energy-properties of three-dimensional, topological Weyl semimetals and superconductors. We focus on the role of non-perturbative rare region effects on destabilizing the semimetal phase and rounding the expected semimetal-to-diffusive metal transition into a cross over. Furthermore, the consequences of disorder on the resulting nature of excitations, transport, and topology are reviewed. New results on a bipartite random hopping model are presented that confirm previous results in a $p+ip$ Weyl superconductor, demonstrating that particle-hole symmetry is insufficient to help stabilize the Weyl semimetal phase in the presence of disorder. The nature of the avoided transition in a model for a single Weyl cone in the continuum is discussed. We close with a discussion of open questions and future directions.
We study the disorder-induced phase transition of higher-order Weyl semimetals (HOWSMs) and the fate of the topological features of disordered HOWSMs. We obtain a global phase diagram of HOWSMs according to the scaling theory of Anderson localization. Specifically, a phase transition from the Weyl semimetal (WSM) to the HOWSM is uncovered, distinguishing the disordered HOWSMs from the traditional WSMs. Further, we confirm the robustness of Weyl-nodes for HOWSMs. Interestingly, the unique topological properties of HOWSMs show different behaviors: (i) the quantized quadrupole moment and the corresponding quantized charge of hinge states are fragile to weak disorder; (ii) the hinge states show moderate stability which enables the feasibility in experimental observation. Our study deepens the understanding of the topological nature of HOWSMs and paves a possible way to the characterization of such a phase in experiments.
Within a Kubo formalism, we study dc transport and ac optical properties of 3D Dirac and Weyl semimetals. Emphasis is placed on the approach to charge neutrality and on the differences between Dirac and Weyl materials. At charge neutrality, the zero-temperature limit of the dc conductivity is not universal and also depends on the residual scattering model employed. However, the Lorenz number L retains its usual value L_0. With increasing temperature, the Wiedemann-Franz law is violated. At high temperatures, L exhibits a new plateau at a value dependent on the details of the scattering rate. Such details can also appear in the optical conductivity, both in the Drude response and interband background. In the clean limit, the interband background is linear in photon energy and always extrapolates to the origin. This background can be shifted to the right through the introduction of a massless gap. In this case, the extrapolation can cut the axis at a finite photon energy as is observed in some experiments. It is also of interest to differentiate between the two types of Weyl semimetals: those with broken time-reversal symmetry and those with broken spatial-inversion symmetry. We show that, while the former will follow the same behaviour as the 3D Dirac semimetals, for the zero magnetic field properties discussed here, the latter type will show a double step in the optical conductivity at finite doping and a single absorption edge at charge neutrality. The Drude conductivity is always finite in this case, even at charge neutrality.
We study charge transport in a monolayer molybdenum disulfide nanoflake over a wide range of carrier density, temperature, and electric bias. We find that the transport is best described by a percolating picture in which the disorder breaks translational invariance, breaking the system up into a series of puddles, rather than previous pictures in which the disorder is treated as homogeneous and uniform. Our work provides insight to a unified picture of charge transport in monolayer molybdenum disulfide nanoflakes and contributes to the development of next-generation molybdenum disulfide based devices.