Prediction of Dirac semimetal phase with layer-resolved orbital texture in ternary tantalum nitrides

POSTER

Abstract

Three-dimensional topological Dirac semimetals are materials constituting a novel state of quantum matter which has attracted a lot of interest. Dirac semimetals are characterized by topologically protected double-degenerate band crossings with linear dispersion near the Fermi energy, giving rise to quasiparticles that behave like Dirac fermions. By means of first-principles calculations, we discover the Dirac semimetal phase in ternary tantalum nitrides Mg1 – x Ta2+x N3 and Li1–xTa3+xN4. The electron charge densities of the two crossing band pairs which form the Dirac nodes are located in different crystal layers in real space, thus realizing a layer-resolved orbital texture. The band inversion which leads to the Dirac points happens from the dz2 orbital from one Ta layer and dx2-y2 orbitals from another Ta layer.

Presenters

  • QuanSheng Wu

    • Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    • Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    • C3MP, Institute of Physics, ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    • ETH hoenggerberg

Authors

  • QuanSheng Wu

    • Institute of Theoretical Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
    • Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    • C3MP, Institute of Physics, ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    • ETH hoenggerberg
  • Christophe Piveteau

    • ETHZ
  • Zhida Song

    • Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    • Chinese Academy of Scienes (CAS)
  • Matthias Troyer

    • Microsoft Research
    • Quantum Architectures and Computation Group, Microsoft Research
    • Microsoft
    • ITP, ETH Zurich
  • Oleg Yazyev

    • Chair of computational condensed matter physics, IPHYS, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    • Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    • C3MP, Institute of Physics, ÉCOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE (EPFL)
    • C3MP, IPHYS, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
    • Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne