Tunable Weyl and Dirac states in the nonsymmorphic compound CeSbTe
Abstract
Recent interest in topological semimetals has led to the proposal of many new topological phases that can be realized in real materials. Next to Dirac and Weyl systems, these include more exotic phases based on manifold band degeneracies in the bulk electronic structure. The exotic states in topological semimetals are usually protected by some sort of crystal symmetry, and the introduction of magnetic order can influence these states by breaking time-reversal symmetry. We show that we can realize a rich variety of different topological semimetal states in a single material, CeSbTe. This compound can exhibit different types of magnetic order that can be accessed easily by applying a small field. Therefore, it allows for tuning the electronic structure and can drive it through a manifold of topologically distinct phases, such as the first nonsymmorphic magnetic topological phase with an eightfold band crossing at a high-symmetry point. Our experimental results are backed by a full magnetic group theory analysis and ab initio calculations. This discovery introduces a realistic and promising platform for studying the interplay of magnetism and topology. We also show that we can generally expand the numbers of space groups that allow for high-order band degeneracies by introducing antiferromagnetic order.
Citation
Schoop , L M , Topp , A , Lippmann , J , Orlandi , F , Muechler , L , Vergniory , M G , Sun , Y , Rost , A W , Duppel , V , Krivenkov , M , Sheoran , S , Manuel , P , Varykhalov , A , Yan , B , Kremer , R K , Ast , C R & Lotsch , B V 2018 , ' Tunable Weyl and Dirac states in the nonsymmorphic compound CeSbTe ' , Science Advances , vol. 4 , no. 2 , eaar2317 . https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar2317
Publication
Science Advances
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2375-2548Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).
Description
We acknowledge the financial support from the Max Planck Society, the Nanosystems Initiative Munich, and the Center for Nanosciences. L.M.S. acknowledges the financial support from the Minerva Fast Track Fellowship. M.G.V. was supported by the FIS2016-75862-P national projects of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spain. This work was partially supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the proposal Dirac materials in square lattice compounds under proposal SCHO 1730/1-1. The authors acknowledge the Science and Technology Facility Council for the provision of neutron beamtime at the ISIS facility (UK).Collections
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