Three-Dimensional Electronic Structure of the Type-II Weyl Semimetal WTe2

Author(s)
Domenico Di Sante, Pranab Kumar Das, C. Bigi, Z. Ergönenc, Gürtler N., J. A. Krieger, T. Schmitt, M. N. Ali, Graziano Rossi, R. Thomale, C. Franchini, Silvia Picozzi, Jun Fujii, V. N. Strocov, G. Sangiovanni, I. Vobornik, R. J. Cava, G. Panaccione
Abstract

By combining bulk sensitive soft-x-ray angular-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations we explored the bulk electron states of WTe2, a candidate type-II Weyl semimetal featuring a large nonsaturating magnetoresistance. Despite the layered geometry suggesting a two-dimensional electronic structure, we directly observe a three-dimensional electronic dispersion. We report a band dispersion in the reciprocal direction perpendicular to the layers, implying that electrons can also travel coherently when crossing from one layer to the other. The measured Fermi surface is characterized by two well-separated electron and hole pockets at either side of the Γ point, differently from previous more surface sensitive angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments that additionally found a pronounced quasiparticle weight at the zone center. Moreover, we observe a significant sensitivity of the bulk electronic structure of WTe2 around the Fermi level to electronic correlations and renormalizations due to self-energy effects, previously neglected in first-principles descriptions.

Organisation(s)
Computational Materials Physics
External organisation(s)
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg, Theory@Elettra, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, National University of Singapore (NUS), Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Paul Scherrer Institute, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, Princeton University, Institute of Genetics and Biophysics "Adriano Buzzati-Traverso", CNR
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Volume
119
No. of pages
6
ISSN
0031-9007
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.026403
Publication date
07-2017
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
103025 Quantum mechanics, 103036 Theoretical physics, 103015 Condensed matter, 103009 Solid state physics
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
General Physics and Astronomy
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/5816c369-aa2a-4aff-8d08-a1bd789c9f23