Optical conductivity of three and two dimensional topological nodal line semimetals

Abstract

The peculiar shape of the Fermi surface of topological nodal line semimetals at low carrier concentrations results in their unusual optical and transport properties. We analytically investigate the linear optical responses of three and two-dimensional nodal line semimetals using the Kubo formula. The optical conductivity of a three-dimensional nodal line semimetal is anisotropic. Along the axial direction (\textit{i.e.}, the direction perpendicular to the nodal-ring plane), the Drude weight has a linear dependence on the chemical potential at both low and high carrier dopings. For the radial direction (\textit{i.e.}, the direction parallel to the nodal-ring plane), this dependence changes from linear into quadratic in the transition from low into high carrier concentration. The interband contribution into optical conductivity is also anisotropic. In particular, at large frequencies, it saturates to a constant value for the axial direction and linearly increases with frequency along the radial direction. In two-dimensional nodal line semimetals, no interband optical transition could be induced and the only contribution to the optical conductivity arises from the intraband excitations. The corresponding Drude weight is independent of the carrier density at low carrier concentrations and linearly increases with chemical potential at high carrier doping.