Weyl fermions, Fermi arcs, and minority-spin carriers in ferromagnetic CoS₂.

Abstract

Magnetic Weyl semimetals are a newly discovered class of topological materials that may serve as a platform for exotic phenomena, such as axion insulators or the quantum anomalous Hall effect. Here, we use angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and ab initio calculations to discover Weyl cones in CoS₂, a ferromagnet with pyrite structure that has been long studied as a candidate for half-metallicity, which makes it an attractive material for spintronic devices. We directly observe the topological Fermi arc surface states that link the Weyl nodes, which will influence the performance of CoS₂ as a spin injector by modifying its spin polarization at interfaces. In addition, we directly observe a minority-spin bulk electron pocket in the corner of the Brillouin zone, which proves that CoS₂ cannot be a true half-metal.