A Weyl semimetal possesses spin-polarized band-crossings, called Weyl nodes, connected by topological surface arcs. The low-energy excitations near the crossing points behave the same as massless Weyl fermions, leading to exotic properties like chira
l anomaly. To have the transport properties dominated by Weyl fermions, Weyl nodes need to locate nearly at the chemical potential and enclosed by pairs of individual Fermi surfaces with nonzero Fermi Chern numbers. Combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculation, here we show that TaP is a Weyl semimetal with only single type of Weyl fermions, topologically distinguished from TaAs where two types of Weyl fermions contribute to the low-energy physical properties. The simple Weyl fermions in TaP are not only of fundamental interests but also of great potential for future applications. Fermi arcs on the Ta-terminated surface are observed, which appear in a different pattern from that on the As-termination in TaAs and NbAs.
In 1929, H. Weyl proposed that the massless solution of Dirac equation represents a pair of new type particles, the so-called Weyl fermions [1]. However the existence of them in particle physics remains elusive for more than eight decades. Recently,
significant advances in both topological insulators and topological semimetals have provided an alternative way to realize Weyl fermions in condensed matter as an emergent phenomenon: when two non-degenerate bands in the three-dimensional momentum space cross in the vicinity of Fermi energy (called as Weyl nodes), the low energy excitation behaves exactly the same as Weyl fermions. Here, by performing soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements which mainly probe bulk band structure, we directly observe the long-sought-after Weyl nodes for the first time in TaAs, whose projected locations on the (001) surface match well to the Fermi arcs, providing undisputable experimental evidence of existence of Weyl fermion quasiparticles in TaAs.
Weyl semimetals are a class of materials that can be regarded as three-dimensional analogs of graphene breaking time reversal or inversion symmetry. Electrons in a Weyl semimetal behave as Weyl fermions, which have many exotic properties, such as chi
ral anomaly and magnetic monopoles in the crystal momentum space. The surface state of a Weyl semimetal displays pairs of entangled Fermi arcs at two opposite surfaces. However, the existence of Weyl semimetals has not yet been proved experimentally. Here we report the experimental realization of a Weyl semimetal in TaAs by observing Fermi arcs formed by its surface states using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our first-principles calculations, matching remarkably well with the experimental results, further confirm that TaAs is a Weyl semimetal.
Bi2Te3 compound has been theoretically predicted (1) to be a topological insulator, and its topologically non-trivial surface state with a single Dirac cone has been observed in photoemission experiments (2). Here we report that superconductivity (Tc
^~3K) can be induced in Bi2Te3 as-grown single crystal (with hole-carriers) via pressure. The first-principles calculations show that the electronic structure under pressure remains to be topologically nontrivial, and the Dirac-type surface states can be well distinguished from bulk states at corresponding Fermi level. The proximity effect between superconducting bulk states and Dirac-type surface state could generate Majorana fermions on the surface. We also discuss the possibility that the bulk state could be a topological superconductor.
