Experimental Observation of Three-Component ‘New Fermions’ in Topological Semimetal MoP

ORAL

Abstract

Condensed matter systems can host quasiparticle excitations that are analogues to elementary particles such as Majorana, Weyl, and Dirac fermions. Recent advances in band theory have expanded the classification of fermions in crystals, and revealed crystal symmetry-protected electron excitations that have no high-energy counterparts. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we demonstrate the existence of a triply degenerate point in the electronic structure of MoP crystal, where the quasiparticle excitations are beyond the Majorana-Weyl-Dirac classification. Furthermore, we observe pairs of Weyl points in the bulk electronic structure coexisting with the ‘new fermions’, thus introducing a platform for studying the interplay between different types of fermions.

*We thank Binbin Fu, Nan Xu, and Xin Gao for the assistance in the ARPES experiments.

Authors

  • B.Q. Lv

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • Z.-L. Feng

    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • Q.-N. Xu

    • Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • J.-Z. Ma

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • L.-Y. Kong

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • Pierre Richard

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Institute of Physics, CAS
  • Y.-B. Huang

    • Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • V. N. Strocov

    • Paul Scherrer Institute
  • Chen Fang

    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, and Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • H.-M. Weng

    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Institute of Physics (IOP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Y.-G. Shi

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • Tian Qian

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
  • Hong Ding

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
    • Institute of Physics, CAS