Effective models for nearly ideal Dirac semimetals

Abstract

Topological materials (TMs) have gained intensive attention due to their novel behaviors compared with topologically trivial materials. Among various TMs, Dirac semimetal (DSM) has been studied extensively. Although several DSMs have been proposed and verified experimentally, the suitable DSM for realistic applications is still lacking. Thus finding ideal DSMs and providing detailed analyses to them are of both fundamental and technological importance. Here, we sort out 8 (nearly) ideal DSMs from thousands of topological semimetals in Nature 566(7745), 486 (2019). We show the concrete positions of the Dirac points in the Brillouin zone for these materials and clarify the symmetryprotection mechanism for these Dirac points as well as their low-energy effective models. Our results provide a useful starting point for future study such as topological phase transition under strain and transport study based on these effective models. These DSMs with high mobilities are expected to be applied in fabrication of functional electronic devices.

Keywords

Dirac semimetal / symmetry / effective model

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