No Arabic abstract
We decipher the microscopic mechanism of the formation of tilt in the two-dimensional Dirac cone of $8Pmmn$ borophene sheet. With the aid of $ab~ initio$ calculations, we identify relevant low-energy degrees of freedom on the $8Pmmn$ lattice and find that these atomic orbitals reside on an effective honeycomb lattice (inner sites), while the high-energy degrees of freedom reside on the rest of the $8Pmmn$ lattice (ridge sites). Local chemical bonds formed between the low- and high-energy sublattices provide the required off-diagonal coupling between the two sectors. Elimination of high-energy ridge sites gives rise to a remarkably large $effective$ further neighbor hoppings on the coarse grained (honeycomb) lattice of inner sites that determine the location and tilt of the Dirac cone. This insight based on real space renormalization of the $8Pmmn$ lattice enables us to design atomic scale substitutions that can lead to desired change in the tilt of the Dirac cone. We furthermore encode the process of renormalization into an effective tight-binding model on a parent honeycomb lattice that facilitates numerical modeling of various effects such as disorder/interactions/symmetry-breaking for tilted Dirac cone fermions of $8Pmmn$ structure. The tilt parameters determine a spacetime metric, and therefore the ability to vary the tilt over distances much larger than the atomic separations opens up a paradigm for fabricating arbitrary solid-state spacetimes.
In this work, we predict a novel band structure for Carbon-Lithium(C4Li) compound using the first-principles method. We show that it exhibits two Dirac points near the Fermi level; one located at W point originating from the nonsymmophic symmetry of the compound, and the other one behaves like a type-II Dirac cone with higher anisotropy along the {Gamma} to X line. The obtained Fermi surface sheets of the hole-pocket and the electron-pocket near the type-II Dirac cone are separated from each other, and they would touch each other when the Fermi level is doped to cross the type-II Dirac cone. The evolution of Fermi surface with doping is also discussed. The bands crossing from T to W make a line-node at the intersection of kx={pi} and ky={pi} mirror planes. The C4Li is a novel material with both nonsymmorphic protected Dirac cone and type-II Dirac cone near the Fermi level which may exhibit exceptional topological property for electronic applications.
Polar catastrophe at the interface of oxide materials with strongly correlated electrons has triggered a flurry of new research activities. The expectations are that the design of such advanced interfaces will become a powerful route to engineer devices with novel functionalities. Here we investigate the initial stages of growth and the electronic structure of the spintronic Fe3O4/MgO (001) interface. Using soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy we have discovered that the so-called A-sites are completely missing in the first Fe3O4 monolayer. This allows us to develop an unexpected but elegant growth principle in which during deposition the Fe atoms are constantly on the move to solve the divergent electrostatic potential problem, thereby ensuring epitaxy and stoichiometry at the same time. This growth principle provides a new perspective for the design of interfaces.
We performed an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of BaFe2As2, which is the parent compound of the so-called 122 phase of the iron-pnictide high-temperature superconductors. We reveal the existence of a Dirac cone in the electronic structure of this material below the spin-density-wave temperature, which is responsible for small spots of high photoemission intensity at the Fermi level. Our analysis suggests that the cone is slightly anisotropic and its apex is located very near the Fermi level, leading to tiny Fermi surface pockets. Moreover, the bands forming the cone show an anisotropic leading edge gap away from the cone that suggests a nodal spin-density-wave description.
Topological insulators (TIs) are a new class of matter characterized by the unique electronic properties of an insulating bulk and metallic boundaries arising from non-trivial bulk band topology. While the surfaces of TIs have been well studied, the interface between TIs and semiconductors may not only be more technologically relevant but the interaction with non-topological states may fundamentally alter the physics. Here, we present a general model to show that such an interaction can lead to spin-momentum locked non-topological states, the Dirac cone can split in two, and the particle-hole symmetry can be fundamentally broken, along with their possible ramifications. Unlike magnetic doping or alloying, these phenomena occur without topological transitions or the breaking of time reversal symmetry. The model results are corroborated by first-principles calculations of the technologically relevant Bi$_2$Se$_3$ film van der Waals bound to a Se-treated GaAs substrate.
Topological insulators (TIs) and graphene present two unique classes of materials which are characterized by spin polarized (helical) and non-polarized Dirac-cone band structures, respectively. The importance of many-body interactions that renormalize the linear bands near Dirac point in graphene has been well recognized and attracted much recent attention. However, renormalization of the helical Dirac point has not been observed in TIs. Here, we report the experimental observation of the renormalized quasi-particle spectrum with a skewed Dirac cone in a single Bi bilayer grown on Bi2Te3 substrate, from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. First-principles band calculations indicate that the quasi-particle spectra are likely associated with the hybridization between the extrinsic substrate-induced Dirac states of Bi bilayer and the intrinsic surface Dirac states of Bi2Te3 film at close energy proximity. Without such hybridization, only single-particle Dirac spectra are observed in a single Bi bilayer grown on Bi2Se3, where the extrinsic Dirac states Bi bilayer and the intrinsic Dirac states of Bi2Se3 are well separated in energy. The possible origins of many-body interactions are discussed. Our findings provide a means to manipulate topological surface states.