Abstract
Weyl semimetals are gapless three-dimensional topological materials where two bands touch at an even number of points in the Brillouin zone. In this work we study a zinc-blende lattice model realizing a time-reversal invariant Weyl semimetal. The bulk dynamics is described by 12 helical Weyl nodes. Surface states form a peculiar quasi-two-dimensional helical metal fundamentally different from the Dirac form typical for topological insulators. The allowed direction of velocity and spin of low-energy surface excitations are locked to the cubic symmetry axes. The studied system illustrates the general properties of surface states in systems with common crystal symmetries.
- Received 12 April 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.245112
©2013 American Physical Society