Topological semimetals and insulators in three-dimensional honeycomb materials

Dennis Wawrzik, David Lindner, Maria Hermanns, and Simon Trebst
Phys. Rev. B 98, 115114 – Published 10 September 2018

Abstract

Semimetals, in which conduction and valence bands touch but do not form Fermi surfaces, have attracted considerable interest for their anomalous properties starting with the discovery of Dirac matter in graphene and other two-dimensional honeycomb materials. Here we introduce a family of three-dimensional honeycomb systems whose electronic band structures exhibit a variety of topological semimetals with Dirac nodal lines. We show that these nodal lines appear in varying numbers and mutual geometries, depending on the underlying lattice structure. They are stabilized, in most cases, by a combination of time-reversal and inversion symmetries and are accompanied by topologically protected “drumhead” surface states. In the bulk, these nodal line systems exhibit Landau level quantization and flat bands upon applying a magnetic field. In the presence of spin-orbit coupling, these topological semimetals are found to generically form (strong) topological insulators. This comprehensive classification of the electronic band structures of three-dimensional honeycomb systems might serve as guidance for future material synthesis.

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  • Received 15 March 2018
  • Revised 29 May 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.98.115114

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Dennis Wawrzik1, David Lindner1, Maria Hermanns1,2, and Simon Trebst1

  • 1Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Cologne, 50937 Cologne, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, SE 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

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Issue

Vol. 98, Iss. 11 — 15 September 2018

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