Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2}
Due to their topological charge, or chirality, the Weyl cones present in topological semimetals are considered robust against arbitrary perturbations. One well-understood exception to this robustness is the pairwise creation or annihilation of Weyl cones, which involves the overlap in energy and mom...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2021-11-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Research |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042017 |
| _version_ | 1797210887221673984 |
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| author | Viktor Könye Adrien Bouhon Ion Cosma Fulga Robert-Jan Slager Jeroen van den Brink Jorge I. Facio |
| author_facet | Viktor Könye Adrien Bouhon Ion Cosma Fulga Robert-Jan Slager Jeroen van den Brink Jorge I. Facio |
| author_sort | Viktor Könye |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to their topological charge, or chirality, the Weyl cones present in topological semimetals are considered robust against arbitrary perturbations. One well-understood exception to this robustness is the pairwise creation or annihilation of Weyl cones, which involves the overlap in energy and momentum of two oppositely charged nodes. Here we show that the topological charge can in fact change sign, in a process that involves the merging of not two, but three Weyl nodes. This is facilitated by the presence of rotation and time-reversal symmetries, which constrain the relative positions of Weyl cones in momentum space. We analyze the chirality flip process, showing that transport properties distinguish it from the conventional, double Weyl merging. Moreover, we predict that the chirality flip occurs in MoTe_{2}, where experimentally accessible strain leads to the merging of three Weyl cones close to the Fermi level. Our work sets the stage to further investigate and observe such chirality flipping processes in different topological materials. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:17:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cfbaa9d70d2749019f7efce1748c03c8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2643-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:17:44Z |
| publishDate | 2021-11-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physical Review Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-cfbaa9d70d2749019f7efce1748c03c82024-04-12T17:15:26ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642021-11-0134L04201710.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042017Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2}Viktor KönyeAdrien BouhonIon Cosma FulgaRobert-Jan SlagerJeroen van den BrinkJorge I. FacioDue to their topological charge, or chirality, the Weyl cones present in topological semimetals are considered robust against arbitrary perturbations. One well-understood exception to this robustness is the pairwise creation or annihilation of Weyl cones, which involves the overlap in energy and momentum of two oppositely charged nodes. Here we show that the topological charge can in fact change sign, in a process that involves the merging of not two, but three Weyl nodes. This is facilitated by the presence of rotation and time-reversal symmetries, which constrain the relative positions of Weyl cones in momentum space. We analyze the chirality flip process, showing that transport properties distinguish it from the conventional, double Weyl merging. Moreover, we predict that the chirality flip occurs in MoTe_{2}, where experimentally accessible strain leads to the merging of three Weyl cones close to the Fermi level. Our work sets the stage to further investigate and observe such chirality flipping processes in different topological materials.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042017 |
| spellingShingle | Viktor Könye Adrien Bouhon Ion Cosma Fulga Robert-Jan Slager Jeroen van den Brink Jorge I. Facio Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} Physical Review Research |
| title | Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} |
| title_full | Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} |
| title_fullStr | Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} |
| title_full_unstemmed | Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} |
| title_short | Chirality flip of Weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained MoTe_{2} |
| title_sort | chirality flip of weyl nodes and its manifestation in strained mote 2 |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L042017 |
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