Electrodynamics on Fermi Cyclides in Nodal Line Semimetals

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Abstract

We study the the frequency dependent conductivity of nodal-line semimetals (NLSMs) focusing on the effects of carrier density and energy dispersion on the nodal line. We find that the low frequency conductivity has a rich spectral structure which can be understood using scaling rules derived from the geometry of their Dupin-cyclide Fermi surfaces. We identify different frequency regimes, find scaling rules for the optical conductivity in each and demonstrate them with numerical calculations of the inter- and intraband contributions to the optical conductivity using a low energy model for a generic NLSM.

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Topological nodal semimetals

Leon Balents, A A Burkov, M. D. Hook (2011)

We present a study of "nodal semimetal" phases, in which non-degenerate conduction and valence bands touch at points (the "Weyl semimetal") or lines (the "line node semimetal") in three-dimensional momentum space. We discuss a general approach to such states by perturbation of the critical point between a normal insulator (NI) and a topological insulator (TI), breaking either time reversal (TR) or inversion symmetry. We give an explicit model realization of both types of states in a NI--TI superlattice structure with broken TR symmetry. Both the Weyl and the line-node semimetals are characterized by topologically-protected surface states, although in the line-node case some additional symmetries must be imposed to retain this topological protection. The edge states have the form of "Fermi arcs" in the case of the Weyl semimetal: these are chiral gapless edge states, which exist in a finite region in momentum space, determined by the momentum-space separation of the bulk Weyl nodes. The chiral character of the edge states leads to a finite Hall conductivity. In contrast, the edge states of the line-node semimetal are "flat bands": these states are approximately dispersionless in a subset of the two-dimensional edge Brillouin zone, given by the projection of the line node onto the plane of the edge. We discuss unusual transport properties of the nodal semimetals, and in particular point out quantum critical-like scaling of the DC and optical conductivity of the Weyl semimetal, and similarities to the conductivity of graphene in the line node case.

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Topological nodal line semimetals with and without spin-orbital coupling

, , … (2015)

We theoretically study three-dimensional topological semimetals (TSMs) with nodal lines protected by crystalline symmetries. Compared with TSMs with point nodes, e.g., Weyl semimetals and Dirac semimetals, where the conduction and the valence bands touch at discrete points, in these new TSMs the two bands cross at closed lines in the Brillouin zone. We propose two new classes of symmetry protected nodal lines in the absence and in the presence of spin-orbital coupling (SOC), respectively. In the former, we discuss nodal lines that are protected by the combination of inversion symmetry and time-reversal symmetry; yet unlike any previously studied nodal lines in the same symmetry class, each nodal line has a \(Z_2\) monopole charge and can only be created (annihilated) in pairs. In the second class, with SOC, we show that a nonsymmorphic symmetry (screw axis) protects a four-band crossing nodal line in systems having both inversion and time-reversal symmetries.

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Topological nodal line semimetals

Chen Fang, Hongming Weng, Xi Dai … (2016)

We review the recent, mainly theoretical, progress in the study of topological nodal line semimetals in three dimensions. In these semimetals, the conduction and the valence bands cross each other along a one-dimensional curve in the three-dimensional Brillouin zone, and any perturbation that preserves a certain symmetry group (generated by either spatial symmetries or time-reversal symmetry) cannot remove this crossing line and open a full direct gap between the two bands. The nodal line(s) is hence topologically protected by the symmetry group, and can be associated with a topological invariant. In this Review, (i) we enumerate the symmetry groups that may protect a topological nodal line; (ii) we write down the explicit form of the topological invariant for each of these symmetry groups in terms of the wave functions on the Fermi surface, establishing a topological classification; (iii) for certain classes, we review the proposals for the realization of these semimetals in real materials and (iv) we discuss different scenarios that when the protecting symmetry is broken, how a topological nodal line semimetal becomes Weyl semimetals, Dirac semimetals and other topological phases and (v) we discuss the possible physical effects accessible to experimental probes in these materials.