Three-component fermions with surface Fermi arcs in tungsten carbide

J. Z. Ma, J. B. He, Y. F. Xu, B. Q. Lv, D. Chen, W. L. Zhu, S. Zhang, L. Y. Kong, X. Gao, L. Y. Rong, Y. B. Huang, P. Richard, C. Y. Xi, E. S. Choi, Y. Shao, Y. L. Wang, H. J. Gao, X. Dai, C. Fang, H. M. WengG. F. Chen*, T. Qian, H. Ding

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

116 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Topological Dirac and Weyl semimetals not only host quasiparticles analogous to the elementary fermionic particles in high-energy physics, but also have a non-trivial band topology manifested by gapless surface states, which induce exotic surface Fermi arcs 1,2 . Recent advances suggest new types of topological semimetal, in which spatial symmetries protect gapless electronic excitations without high-energy analogues 3-11 . Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we observe triply degenerate nodal points near the Fermi level of tungsten carbide with space group P 6 m 2 (no. 187), in which the low-energy quasiparticles are described as three-component fermions distinct from Dirac and Weyl fermions. We further observe topological surface states, whose constant-energy contours constitute pairs of 'Fermi arcs' connecting to the surface projections of the triply degenerate nodal points, proving the non-trivial topology of the newly identified semimetal state.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)349-354
Number of pages6
JournalNature Physics
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2018
Externally publishedYes

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