No Arabic abstract
The electronic structure of WTe$_2$ and orthorhombic $gamma-$MoTe$_2$, are claimed to contain pairs of Weyl type-II points. A series of ARPES experiments claim a broad agreement with these predictions. We synthesized single-crystals of MoTe$_2$ through a Te flux method to validate these predictions through measurements of its bulk Fermi surface (FS) emph{via} quantum oscillatory phenomena. We find that the superconducting transition temperature of $gamma-$MoTe$_2$ depends on disorder as quantified by the ratio between the room- and low-temperature resistivities, suggesting the possibility of an unconventional superconducting pairing symmetry. Similarly to WTe$_2$, the magnetoresistivity of $gamma-$MoTe$_2$ does not saturate at high magnetic fields and can easily surpass $10^{6}$ %. Remarkably, the analysis of the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) signal superimposed onto the magnetic torque, indicates that the geometry of its FS is markedly distinct from the calculated one. The dHvA signal also reveals that the FS is affected by the Zeeman-effect precluding the extraction of the Berry-phase. A direct comparison between the previous ARPES studies and density-functional-theory (DFT) calculations reveals a disagreement in the position of the valence bands relative to the Fermi level $varepsilon_F$. Here, we show that a shift of the DFT valence bands relative to $varepsilon_F$, in order to match the ARPES observations, and of the DFT electron bands to explain some of the observed dHvA frequencies, leads to a good agreement between the calculations and the angular dependence of the FS cross-sectional areas observed experimentally. However, this relative displacement between electron- and hole-bands eliminates their crossings and, therefore, the Weyl type-II points predicted for $gamma-$MoTe$_2$.
Weyl type-II fermions are massless quasiparticles that obey the Weyl equation and which are predicted to occur at the boundary between electron- and hole-pockets in certain semi-metals, i.e. the (W,Mo)(Te,P)$_2$ compounds. Here, we present a study of the Fermi-surface of WP$_2$ emph{via} the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) effect. Compared to other semi-metals WP$_2$ exhibits a very low residual resistivity, i.e. $rho_0 simeq 10$ n$Omega$cm, which leads to perhaps the largest non-saturating magneto-resistivity $(rho(H))$ reported for any compound. For the samples displaying the smallest $rho_0$, $rho(H)$ is observed to increase by a factor of $2.5 times 10^{7}$ $%$ under $mu_{0}H = 35$ T at $T = 0.35$ K. The angular dependence of the SdH frequencies is found to be in very good agreement with the first-principle calculations when the electron- and hole-bands are slightly shifted with respect to the Fermi level, thus supporting the existence of underlying Weyl type-II points in WP$_2$.
Recently, a new group of layered transition-metal tetra-chalcogenides were proposed, via first principles calculations, to correspond to a new family of Weyl type-II semimetals with promising topological properties in the bulk as well as in the monolayer limit. In this article, we present measurements of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) and de Haas-van Alphen effects under high magnetic fields for the type-II Weyl semimetallic candidate NbIrTe$_{4}$. We find that the angular dependence of the observed Fermi surface extremal cross-sectional areas agree well with our DFT calculations supporting the existence of Weyl type-II points in this material. Although we observe a large and non-saturating magnetoresistivity in NbIrTe$_{4}$ under fields all the way up to 35 T, Hall-effect measurements indicate that NbIrTe$_{4}$ is not a compensated semimetal. The transverse magnetoresistivity displays a four-fold angular dependence akin to the so-called butterfly magnetoresistivity observed in nodal line semimetals. However, we conclude that its field and this unconventional angular-dependence are governed by the topography of the Fermi-surface and the resulting anisotropy in effective masses and in carrier mobilities.
Weyl semimetal is a new quantum state of matter [1-12] hosting the condensed matter physics counterpart of relativisticWeyl fermion [13] originally introduced in high energy physics. The Weyl semimetal realized in the TaAs class features multiple Fermi arcs arising from topological surface states [10, 11, 14-16] and exhibits novel quantum phenomena, e.g., chiral anomaly induced negative mag-netoresistance [17-19] and possibly emergent supersymmetry [20]. Recently it was proposed theoretically that a new type (type-II) of Weyl fermion [21], which does not have counterpart in high energy physics due to the breaking of Lorentz invariance, can emerge as topologically-protected touching between electron and hole pockets. Here, we report direct spectroscopic evidence of topological Fermi arcs in the predicted type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2 [22-24]. The topological surface states are confirmed by directly observing the surface states using bulk-and surface-sensitive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and the quasi-particle interference (QPI) pattern between the two putative Fermi arcs in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Our work establishes MoTe2 as the first experimental realization of type-II Weyl semimetal, and opens up new opportunities for probing novel phenomena such as exotic magneto-transport [21] in type-II Weyl semimetals.
We report a combined experimental and theoretical study of the candidate type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2. Using laser-based angle-resolved photoemission we resolve multiple distinct Fermi arcs on the inequivalent top and bottom (001) surfaces. All surface states observed experimentally are reproduced by an electronic structure calculation for the experimental crystal structure that predicts a topological Weyl semimetal state with 8 type-II Weyl points. We further use systematic electronic structure calculations simulating different Weyl point arrangements to discuss the robustness of the identified Weyl semimetal state and the topological character of Fermi arcs in MoTe2.
We report angle-resolved photoemission experiments resolving the distinct electronic structure of the inequivalent top and bottom (001) surfaces of WTe2. On both surfaces, we identify a surface state that forms a large Fermi-arc emerging out of the bulk electron pocket. Using surface electronic structure calculations, we show that these Fermi arcs are topologically trivial and that their existence is independent of the presence of type-II Weyl points in the bulk band structure. This implies that the observation of surface Fermi arcs alone does not allow the identification of WTe2 as a topological Weyl semimetal. We further use the identification of the two different surfaces to clarify the number of Fermi surface sheets in WTe2.