Time-reversal symmetry breaking type-II Weyl state in YbMnBi<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31366883.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-11393-5 and PMC identifier 6668437.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Spectroscopic detection of Dirac and Weyl fermions in real materials is vital for both, promising applications and fundamental bridge between high-energy and condensed-matter physics. While the presence of Dirac and noncentrosymmetric Weyl fermions is well established in many materials, the magnetic Weyl semimetals still escape direct experimental detection. In order to find a time-reversal symmetry breaking Weyl state we design two materials and present here experimental and theoretical evidence of realization of such a state in one of them, YbMnBi<sub>2</sub>. We model the time-reversal symmetry breaking observed by magnetization and magneto-optical microscopy measurements by canted antiferromagnetism and find a number of Weyl points. Using angle-resolved photoemission, we directly observe two pairs of Weyl points connected by the Fermi arcs. Our results not only provide a fundamental link between the two areas of physics, but also demonstrate the practical way to design novel materials with exotic properties.