Theoretical Discovery/Prediction: Weyl Semimetal states in the TaAs material (TaAs, NbAs, NbP, TaP) class

作者: Shin-Ming Huang , Su-Yang Xu , Ilya Belopolski , Chi-Cheng Lee , Guoqing Chang

DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS8373

关键词:

摘要: The recent discoveries of Dirac fermions in graphene and on the surface topological insulators have ignited worldwide interest physics materials science. A Weyl semimetal is an unusual crystal where electrons also behave as massless quasi-particles but interestingly they are not fermions. These particles, fermions, were originally considered quantum electrodynamics been observed a fundamental particle nature. provides condensed matter realization leading to unique transport properties with novel device applications. Here, we THEORETICALLY identify first class stoichiometric (TaAs, NbAs, NbP, TaP), which break crystalline inversion symmetry, including TaAs, TaP, NbAs NbP. Our first-principles calculation-based predictions TaAs reveal spin-polarized cones Fermi arc states this compound. We observe pairs points same chiral charge project onto point Brillouin zone, giving rise multiple arcs connecting given point. results show that identified does depend fine-tuning chemical composition or magnetic order, greatly facilitating exploration real materials. (Note added: This theoretical prediction November 2014 (see paper Nature Communications) was basis for experimental discovery Fermions recently published Science (2015) at http URL)

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