Generic Coexistence of Fermi Arcs and Dirac Cones on the Surface of Time-Reversal Invariant Weyl Semimetals

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Alexander Lau - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Klaus Koepernik - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Jeroen Van Den Brink - , Chair of Solid State Theory, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (Author)
  • Carmine Ortix - , Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden, Utrecht University (Author)

Abstract

The hallmark of Weyl semimetals is the existence of open constant-energy contours on their surface - the so-called Fermi arcs - connecting Weyl points. Here, we show that, for time-reversal symmetric realizations of Weyl semimetals, these Fermi arcs, in many cases, coexist with closed Fermi pockets originating from surface Dirac cones pinned to time-reversal invariant momenta. The existence of Fermi pockets is required for certain Fermi-arc connectivities due to additional restrictions imposed by the six Z2 topological invariants characterizing a generic time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetal. We show that a change of the Fermi-arc connectivity generally leads to a different topology of the surface Fermi surface and identify the half-Heusler compound LaPtBi under in-plane compressive strain as a material that realizes this surface Lifshitz transition. We also discuss universal features of this coexistence in quasiparticle interference spectra.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Article number076801
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume119
Issue number7
Publication statusPublished - 18 Aug 2017
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 28949688

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas