Topological phase transition between distinct Weyl semimetal states in MoTe2

We present experimental evidence of an intriguing phase transition between distinct topological states in the type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2. We observe anomalies in the Raman phonon frequencies and linewidths as well as electronic quasielastic peaks around 70 K, which, together with structural, therm...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2019-11, Vol.100 (20), p.1
Main Authors: Zhang, Anmin, Ma, Xiaoli, Liu, Changle, Lou, Rui, Wang, Yimeng, Yu, Qiaohe, Wang, Yiyan, Xia, Tian-long, Wang, Shancai, Zhang, Lei, Wang, Xiaoqun, Chen, Changfeng, Zhang, Qingming
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anomalies
Coupling
Electronic structure
Molybdenum compounds
Phase transitions
Phonons
Tellurides
Temperature dependence
Topology
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Summary:We present experimental evidence of an intriguing phase transition between distinct topological states in the type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2. We observe anomalies in the Raman phonon frequencies and linewidths as well as electronic quasielastic peaks around 70 K, which, together with structural, thermodynamic measurements, and electron-phonon coupling calculations, demonstrate a temperature-induced transition between two topological phases previously identified by contrasting spectroscopic measurements. An analysis of experimental data suggests electron-phonon coupling as the main driving mechanism for the change of key topological characters in the electronic structure of MoTe2. We also find the phase transition to be sensitive to sample conditions distinguished by synthesis methods. These discoveries of temperature and material condition-dependent topological phase evolutions and transitions in MoTe2 advance the fundamental understanding of the underlying physics and enable an effective approach to tuning Weyl semimetal states for technological applications.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.201107