International Centre for Quantum and Molecular Structures, Materials Genome Institute, Shanghai Key Laboratory of High Temperature Superconductors, Physics Department, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.
Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6323, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2018 Sep 7;121(10):106404. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.106404.
We propose that the noncentrosymmetric LiGaGe-type hexagonal ABC crystal SrHgPb realizes a new type of topological semimetal that hosts both Dirac and Weyl points in momentum space. The symmetry-protected Dirac points arise due to a band inversion and are located on the sixfold rotation z axis, whereas the six pairs of Weyl points related by sixfold symmetry are located on the perpendicular k_{z}=0 plane. By studying the electronic structure as a function of the buckling of the HgPb layer, which is the origin of inversion symmetry breaking, we establish that the coexistence of Dirac and Weyl fermions defines a phase separating two topologically distinct Dirac semimetals. These two Dirac semimetals are distinguished by the Z_{2} index of the k_{z}=0 plane and the corresponding presence or absence of 2D Dirac fermions on side surfaces. We formalize our first-principles calculations by deriving and studying a low-energy model Hamiltonian describing the Dirac-Weyl semimetal phase. We conclude by proposing several other materials in the noncentrosymmetric ABC material class, in particular SrHgSn and CaHgSn, as candidates for realizing the Dirac-Weyl semimetal.
我们提出,非中心对称 LiGaGe 型六方 ABC 晶体 SrHgPb 实现了一种新的拓扑半金属,在动量空间中同时存在狄拉克点和外尔点。由能带反转产生的对称保护狄拉克点位于六重旋转 z 轴上,而通过六重旋转对称相关的六对外尔点位于垂直于 k_{z}=0 的平面上。通过研究作为 HgPb 层翘曲的函数的电子结构,我们确定了狄拉克和外尔费米子的共存定义了一个相,该相分隔两个拓扑上不同的狄拉克半金属。这两种狄拉克半金属通过 k_{z}=0 平面的 Z_{2}指标以及侧表面上二维狄拉克费米子的存在与否来区分。我们通过推导出并研究描述狄拉克-外尔半金属相的低能模型哈密顿量,对我们的第一性原理计算进行了形式化。最后,我们提出了非中心对称 ABC 材料类中的其他几种材料,特别是 SrHgSn 和 CaHgSn,作为实现狄拉克-外尔半金属的候选材料。