Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 115, Issue 33, Pages 8311-8315Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1803599115
Keywords
Dirac semimetals; Weyl semimetals; Fermi arcs; topological insulator
Categories
Funding
- Ministry of Science and Technology of China [2015CB921300, 2017YFA0303100]
- National Science Foundation of China [NSFC-11334012, NSFC-11674278]
- Chinese Academy of Sciences [XD-B07000000, XDPB08-4, XDB28000000]
- European Research Council (ERC) [ERC-StG-TOPOLECTRICS-336012]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) through the special research unit (SFB) [DFG-SFB 1170]
- German Research Foundation (DFG) through the priority programme (SPP) [DFG-SPP 1666]
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Anomalous surface states with Fermi arcs are commonly considered to be a fingerprint of Dirac semimetals (DSMs). In contrast to Weyl semimetals, however, Fermi arcs of DSMs are not topologically protected. Using first-principles calculations, we predict that beta-cuprous iodide (beta-CuI) is a peculiar DSM whose surface states form closed Fermi pockets instead of Fermi arcs. In such a fermiological Dirac semimetal, the deformation mechanism from Fermi arcs to Fermi pockets stems from a large cubic term preserving all crystal symmetries and from the small energy difference between the surface and bulk Dirac points. The cubic term in beta-CuI, usually negligible in prototypical DSMs, becomes relevant because of the particular crystal structure. As such, we establish a concrete material example manifesting the lack of topological protection for surface Fermi arcs in DSMs.
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