Evidence for topological type-II Weyl semimetal WTe2

Peng Li, Yan Wen, Xin He, Qiang Zhang, Chuan Xia, Zhi Ming Yu, Shengyuan A. Yang, Zhiyong Zhu, Husam N. Alshareef, Xi Xiang Zhang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

288 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recently, a type-II Weyl fermion was theoretically predicted to appear at the contact of electron and hole Fermi surface pockets. A distinguishing feature of the surfaces of type-II Weyl semimetals is the existence of topological surface states, so-called Fermi arcs. Although WTe2 was the first material suggested as a type-II Weyl semimetal, the direct observation of its tilting Weyl cone and Fermi arc has not yet been successful. Here, we show strong evidence that WTe2 is a type-II Weyl semimetal by observing two unique transport properties simultaneously in one WTe2 nanoribbon. The negative magnetoresistance induced by a chiral anomaly is quite anisotropic in WTe2 nanoribbons, which is present in b-axis ribbon, but is absent in a-axis ribbon. An extra-quantum oscillation, arising from a Weyl orbit formed by the Fermi arc and bulk Landau levels, displays a two dimensional feature and decays as the thickness increases in WTe2 nanoribbon.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2150
JournalNature Communications
Volume8
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2017

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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