600 research outputs found
Potential ring of Dirac nodes in a new polymorph of CaP
We report the crystal structure of a new polymorph of CaP, and an
analysis of its electronic structure. The crystal structure was determined
through Rietveld refinements of powder synchrotron x-ray diffraction data.
CaP is found to be a variant of the MnSi structure type, with a
Ca ion deficiency compared to the ideal 5:3 stoichiometry to yield a
charge-balanced compound. We also report the observation of a secondary phase,
CaPH, in which the Ca and P sites are fully occupied and the presence
of interstitial hydride ions creates a closed-shell electron-precise compound.
We show via electronic structure calculations of CaP that the compound
is stabilized by a gap in the density of states compared to the hypothetical
compound CaP. Moreover, the calculated band structure of CaP
indicates that it should be a three-dimensional Dirac semimetal with a highly
unusual ring of Dirac nodes at the Fermi level. The Dirac states are protected
against gap opening by a mirror plane in a manner analogous to graphene. The
results suggest that further study of the electronic properties of CaP
will be of interest
Optical investigation of thermoelectric topological crystalline insulator PbSnSe
PbSnSe is a novel alloy of two promising thermoelectric
materials PbSe and SnSe that exhibits a temperature dependent band inversion
below 300 K. Recent work has shown that this band inversion also coincides with
a trivial to nontrivial topological phase transition. To understand how the
properties critical to thermoelectric efficiency are affected by the band
inversion, we measured the broadband optical response of
PbSnSe as a function of temperature. We find clear optical
evidence of the band inversion at K, and use the extended Drude
model to accurately determine a dependence of the bulk carrier
lifetime, associated with electron-acoustic phonon scattering. Due to the high
bulk carrier doping level, no discriminating signatures of the topological
surface states are found, although their presence cannot be excluded from our
data.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure
Magnetoresistance and quantum oscillations of an electrostatically tuned semimetal-to-metal transition in ultrathin WTe 2
We report on electronic transport measurements of electrostatically gated nanodevices of the semimetal WTe[subscript 2]. High mobility metallic behavior is achieved in the 2D limit by encapsulating thin flakes in an inert atmosphere. At low temperatures, we find that a large magnetoresistance can be turned on and off by electrostatically doping the system between a semimetallic state and an electron-only metallic state, respectively. We confirm the nature of the two regimes by analyzing the magnetoresistance and Hall effect with a two-carrier model, as well as by analysis of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations, both of which indicate depletion of hole carriers via the electrostatic gate. This confirms that semiclassical transport of two oppositely charged carriers accurately describes the exceptional magnetoresistance observed in this material. Finally, we also find that the magnetoresistance power law is subquadratic and density independent, suggesting new physics specifically in the semimetallic regime.United States. Dept. of Energy. Office of Basic Energy Science. Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering (Award DE-SC0006418)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-16-1-0382)Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (EPiQS Initiative Grant GBMF4541
Z topology and superconductivity from symmetry lowering of a 3D Dirac Metal AuPb
3D Dirac semi-metals (DSMs) are materials that have massless Dirac electrons
and exhibit exotic physical properties It has been suggested that structurally
distorting a DSM can create a Topological Insulator (TI), but this has not yet
been experimentally verified. Furthermore, quasiparticle excitations known as
Majorana Fermions have been theoretically proposed to exist in materials that
exhibit superconductivity and topological surface states. Here we show that the
cubic Laves phase AuPb has a bulk Dirac cone above 100 K that gaps out upon
cooling at a structural phase transition to create a topologically non trivial
phase that superconducts below 1.2 K. The nontrivial Z = -1 invariant in
the low temperature phase indicates that AuPb in its superconducting state
must have topological surface states. These characteristics make AuPb a
unique platform for studying the transition between bulk Dirac electrons and
topological surface states as well as studying the interaction of
superconductivity with topological surface states
Thin disc, Thick Disc and Halo in a Simulated Galaxy
Within a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation, we form a disc galaxy with
sub- components which can be assigned to a thin stellar disc, thick disk, and a
low mass stellar halo via a chemical decomposition. The thin and thick disc
populations so selected are distinct in their ages, kinematics, and
metallicities. Thin disc stars are young (<6.6 Gyr), possess low velocity
dispersion ({\sigma}U,V,W = 41, 31, 25 km/s), high [Fe/H], and low [O/Fe]. The
thick disc stars are old (6.6<age<9.8 Gyrs), lag the thin disc by \sim21 km/s,
possess higher velocity dispersion ({\sigma}U,V,W = 49, 44, 35 km/s),
relatively low [Fe/H] and high [O/Fe]. The halo component comprises less than
4% of stars in the "solar annulus" of the simulation, has low metallicity, a
velocity ellipsoid defined by ({\sigma}U,V,W = 62, 46, 45 km/s) and is formed
primarily in-situ during an early merger epoch. Gas-rich mergers during this
epoch play a major role in fuelling the formation of the old disc stars (the
thick disc). This is consistent with studies which show that cold accretion is
the main source of a disc galaxy's baryons. Our simulation initially forms a
relatively short (scalelength \sim1.7 kpc at z=1) and kinematically hot disc,
primarily from gas accreted during the galaxy's merger epoch. Far from being a
competing formation scenario, migration is crucial for reconciling the short,
hot, discs which form at high redshift in {\Lambda}CDM, with the properties of
the thick disc at z=0. The thick disc, as defined by its abundances maintains
its relatively short scale-length at z = 0 (2.31 kpc) compared with the total
disc scale-length of 2.73 kpc. The inside-out nature of disc growth is
imprinted the evolution of abundances such that the metal poor {\alpha}-young
population has a larger scale-length (4.07 kpc) than the more chemically
evolved metal rich {\alpha}-young population (2.74 kpc).Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. This version after helpful referee comments.
Comments welcome to [email protected]
Imaging electronic states on topological semimetals using scanning tunneling microscopy
Following the intense studies on topological insulators, significant efforts
have recently been devoted to the search for gapless topological systems. These
materials not only broaden the topological classification of matter but also
provide a condensed matter realization of various relativistic particles and
phenomena previously discussed mainly in high energy physics. Weyl semimetals
host massless, chiral, low-energy excitations in the bulk electronic band
structure, whereas a symmetry protected pair of Weyl fermions gives rise to
massless Dirac fermions. We employed scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy
to explore the behavior of electronic states both on the surface and in the
bulk of topological semimetal phases. By mapping the quasiparticle interference
and emerging Landau levels at high magnetic field in Dirac semimetals
CdAs and NaBi, we observed extended Dirac-like bulk electronic
bands. Quasiparticle interference imaged on Weyl semimetal TaAs demonstrated
the predicted momentum dependent delocalization of Fermi arc surface states in
the vicinity of the surface-projected Weyl nodes
- …