Abstract
The surface electronic structure of the half-metallic alloy NiMnSb is investigated in detail, revealing the presence of Dirac cones in the minority-spin states. Surface-localized carriers of suitable energy will consequently behave as massless Dirac fermions, a remarkable situation for a half-metallic material and potentially of great significance in future spintronic device applications. Unlike related features observed previously in graphene and at the surfaces of topological insulators, the Dirac cones described here are of elliptical cross section and are tilted with respect to the energy axis. Such unique properties are permitted due to the lower symmetry in the present case.
- Received 4 May 2010
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.020403
©2010 American Physical Society