arXiv subjects

H. Ding

Publications and source records attributed to H. Ding.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Observation of Weyl nodes and Fermi arcs in TaP

A Weyl semimetal possesses spin-polarized band-crossings, called Weyl nodes, connected by topological surface arcs. The low-energy excitations near the crossing points behave the same as massless Weyl fermions, leading to exotic properties like chiral anomaly. To have the transport properties dominated by Weyl fermions, Weyl nodes need to locate nearly at the chemical potential and enclosed by pairs of individual Fermi surfaces with nonzero Fermi Chern numbers. Combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculation, here we show that TaP is a Weyl semimetal with only single type of Weyl fermions, topologically distinguished from TaAs where two types of Weyl fermions contribute to the low-energy physical properties. The simple Weyl fermions in TaP are not only of fundamental interests but also of great potential for future applications. Fermi arcs on the Ta-terminated surface are observed, which appear in a different pattern from that on the As-termination in TaAs and NbAs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Role of Arsenic in Iron-based Superconductivity at Atomic Scale

In iron-based superconductors, a unique tri-layer Fe-As (Se, Te, P) plays an essential role in controlling the electronic properties, especially the Cooper pairing interaction. Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) to investigate the role of arsenic atom in superconducting Ba0.4K0.6Fe2As2 by directly breaking and restoring the Fe-As structure at atomic scale. After the up-As-layer peeled away, the tunneling spectrum of the exposed iron surface reveals a shallow incoherent gap, indicating a severe suppression of superconductivity without arsenic covering. When a pair of arsenic atoms is placed on such iron surface, a localized topographic feature is formed due to Fe-As orbital hybridization, and the superconducting coherent peaks recover locally with the gap magnitude the same as that on the iron-layer fully covered by arsenic. These observations unravel the Fe-As interactions on an atomic scale and imply its essential roles in the iron-based superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Cooper Pairing and Phase Coherence in Iron Superconductor Fe1+x(Te,Se)

The Cooper pairing and phase coherence are two fundamental aspects of superconductivity. Due to breaking time reversal symmetry, magnetic impurities are detrimental to superconductivity, yet microscopically how they affect the pairing strength and phase coherence in a real material is less understood. Recently we observed a robust zero-energy bound state at an interstitial Fe impurity (IFI) in superconducting Fe1+x(Te,Se), signifying intense impurity scattering. Here we report a comprehensive study, using scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) technique, of the global effects of IFIs on the ground state of Fe1+x(Te,Se) over a wide range of IFI concentration x. Our high resolution tunnelling spectroscopy and quasi-particle interference data at very low temperature demonstrate that IFIs hardly affect the electron pairing strength, while they cause significant decoherence of Cooper pairs in precedence of the Coulomb correlation, eventually driving the ground state of the system from strong-coupling-superconductor to diffusive-metal with incoherent electron pairs.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Observation of Dirac-like band dispersion in LaAgSb$_2$

We present a combined angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and first-principles calculations study of the electronic structure of LaAgSb$_2$ in the entire first Brillouin zone. We observe a Dirac-cone-like structure in the vicinity of the Fermi level formed by the crossing of two linear energy bands, as well as the nested segments of Fermi surface pocket emerging from the cone. Our ARPES results show the close relationship of the Dirac cone to the charge-density-wave ordering, providing consistent explanations for exotic behaviors in this material.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Coexistence of Clean- and Dirty-limit Superconductivity in LiFeAs

The optical properties of LiFeAs with $T_c \simeq$ 18 K have been determined in the normal and superconducting states. The superposition of two Drude components yields a good description of the low-frequency optical response in the normal state. Below $T_c$, the optical conductivity reveals two isotropic superconducting gaps with $Δ_{1} \simeq 2.9$ $\pm$ 0.2 meV and $Δ_{2} \simeq 5.5$ $\pm$ 0.4 meV. A comparison between the superconducting-state Mattis-Bardeen and the normal-state Drude components, in combination with a spectral weight analysis, indicates that the spectral weight associated with a band which has a very small scattering rate is fully transferred to the superfluid weight upon the superconducting condensate. These observations provide clear evidence for the coexistence of clean- and dirty-limit superconductivity in LiFeAs.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Experimental evidence of large-gap two-dimensional topological insulator on the surface of ZrTe5

Two-dimensional (2D) topological insulators (TIs) with a large bulk band-gap are promising for experimental studies of the quantum spin Hall effect and for spintronic device applications. Despite considerable theoretical efforts in predicting large-gap 2D TI candidates, only few of them have been experimentally verified. Here, by combining scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we reveal that the top monolayer of ZrTe5 crystals hosts a large band gap of ~100 meV on the surface and a finite constant density-of-states within the gap at the step edge. Our first-principles calculations confirm the topologically nontrivial nature of the edge states. These results demonstrate that the top monolayer of ZrTe5 crystals is a large-gap 2D TI suitable for topotronic applications at high temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

New phase transition in Na$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$As$_{2}$O revealed by Raman scattering

We performed a Raman scattering study of Na$_2$Ti$_2$As$_2$O. We identified a symmetry breaking structural transition at around $T_s = 150$ K, which matches a large bump in the electrical resistivity. Several new peaks are detected below that transition. Combined with first-principles calculations, our polarization-dependent measurements suggest a charge instability driven lattice distortion along one of the Ti-O bonds that breaks the 4-fold symmetry and more than doubles the unit cell.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Observation of high-Tc superconductivity in rectangular FeSe/STO(110) monolayer

It is well known that superconductivity in Fe-based materials is favoured under tetragonal symmetry, whereas competing orders such as spin-density-wave (SDW) and nematic orders emerge or are reinforced upon breaking the fourfold (C4) symmetry. Accordingly, suppression of orthorhombicity below the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is found in underdoped compounds. Epitaxial film growth on selected substrates allows the design of crystal specific lattice distortions. Here we show that despite the breakdown of the C4 symmetry induced by a 5% difference in the lattice parameters, monolayers of FeSe grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on the (110) surface of SrTiO3 (STO) substrates [FeSe/STO(110)] exhibit a large nearly isotropic superconducting (SC) gap of 16 meV closing around 60 K. Our results on this new interfacial material, similar to those obtained previously on FeSe/STO(001), contradict the common belief that the C4 symmetry is essential for reaching high Tc's in Fe-based superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Hall effect in the extremely large magnetoresistance semimetal WTe$_2$

We systematically measured the Hall effect in the extremely large magnetoresistance semimetal WTe$_2$. By carefully fitting the Hall resistivity to a two-band model, the temperature dependencies of the carrier density and mobility for both electron- and hole-type carriers were determined. We observed a sudden increase of the hole density below $\sim$160~K, which is likely associated with the temperature-induced Lifshitz transition reported by a previous photoemission study. In addition, a more pronounced reduction in electron density occurs below 50~K, giving rise to comparable electron and hole densities at low temperature. Our observations indicate a possible electronic structure change below 50~K, which might be the direct driving force of the electron-hole ``compensation'' and the extremely large magnetoresistance as well. Numerical simulations imply that this material is unlikely to be a perfectly compensated system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Observation of Fermi arc spin texture in TaAs

We have investigated the spin texture of surface Fermi arcs in the recently discovered Weyl semimetal TaAs using spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The experimental results demonstrate that the Fermi arcs are spin-polarized. The measured spin texture fulfills the requirement of mirror and time reversal symmetries and is well reproduced by our first-principles calculations, which gives strong evidence for the topologically nontrivial Weyl semimetal state in TaAs. The consistency between the experimental and calculated results further confirms the distribution of chirality of the Weyl nodes determined by first-principles calculations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Ultrafast Carrier Dynamics in the Large Magnetoresistance Material WTe$_{2}$

Ultrafast optical pump-probe spectroscopy is used to track carrier dynamics in the large magnetoresistance material WTe$_{2}$. Our experiments reveal a fast relaxation process occurring on a sub-picosecond time scale that is caused by electron-phonon thermalization, allowing us to extract the electron-phonon coupling constant. An additional slower relaxation process, occurring on a time scale of $\sim$5-15 picoseconds, is attributed to phonon-assisted electron-hole recombination. As the temperature decreases from 300 K, the timescale governing this process increases due to the reduction of the phonon population. However, below $\sim$50 K, an unusual decrease of the recombination time sets in, most likely due to a change in the electronic structure that has been linked to the large magnetoresistance observed in this material.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Spin-Fluctuation-Induced Non-Fermi-Liquid Behavior with suppressed superconductivity in LiFe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$As

A series of LiFe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$As compounds with different Co concentrations have been studied by transport, optical spectroscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance. We observed a Fermi liquid to non-Fermi liquid to Fermi liquid (FL-NFL-FL) crossover alongside a monotonic suppression of the superconductivity with increasing Co content. In parallel to the FL-NFL-FL crossover, we found that both the low-energy spin fluctuations and Fermi surface nesting are enhanced and then diminished, strongly suggesting that the NFL behavior in LiFe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$As is induced by low-energy spin fluctuations which are very likely tuned by Fermi surface nesting. Our study reveals a unique phase diagram of LiFe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$As where the region of NFL is moved to the boundary of the superconducting phase, implying that they are probably governed by different mechanisms.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Observation of Weyl nodes in TaAs

In 1929, H. Weyl proposed that the massless solution of Dirac equation represents a pair of new type particles, the so-called Weyl fermions [1]. However the existence of them in particle physics remains elusive for more than eight decades. Recently, significant advances in both topological insulators and topological semimetals have provided an alternative way to realize Weyl fermions in condensed matter as an emergent phenomenon: when two non-degenerate bands in the three-dimensional momentum space cross in the vicinity of Fermi energy (called as Weyl nodes), the low energy excitation behaves exactly the same as Weyl fermions. Here, by performing soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements which mainly probe bulk band structure, we directly observe the long-sought-after Weyl nodes for the first time in TaAs, whose projected locations on the (001) surface match well to the Fermi arcs, providing undisputable experimental evidence of existence of Weyl fermion quasiparticles in TaAs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Experimental discovery of Weyl semimetal TaAs

Weyl semimetals are a class of materials that can be regarded as three-dimensional analogs of graphene breaking time reversal or inversion symmetry. Electrons in a Weyl semimetal behave as Weyl fermions, which have many exotic properties, such as chiral anomaly and magnetic monopoles in the crystal momentum space. The surface state of a Weyl semimetal displays pairs of entangled Fermi arcs at two opposite surfaces. However, the existence of Weyl semimetals has not yet been proved experimentally. Here we report the experimental realization of a Weyl semimetal in TaAs by observing Fermi arcs formed by its surface states using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our first-principles calculations, matching remarkably well with the experimental results, further confirm that TaAs is a Weyl semimetal.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Double Spin Asymmetries of Inclusive Hadron Electroproductions from a Transversely Polarized $^3\rm{He}$ Target

We report the measurement of beam-target double-spin asymmetries ($A_\text{LT}$) in the inclusive production of identified hadrons, $\vec{e}~$+$~^3\text{He}^{\uparrow}\rightarrow h+X$, using a longitudinally polarized 5.9 GeV electron beam and a transversely polarized $^3\rm{He}$ target. Hadrons ($π^{\pm}$, $K^{\pm}$ and proton) were detected at 16$^{\circ}$ with an average momentum $<$$P_h$$>$=2.35 GeV/c and a transverse momentum ($p_{T}$) coverage from 0.60 to 0.68 GeV/c. Asymmetries from the $^3\text{He}$ target were observed to be non-zero for $π^{\pm}$ production when the target was polarized transversely in the horizontal plane. The $π^{+}$ and $π^{-}$ asymmetries have opposite signs, analogous to the behavior of $A_\text{LT}$ in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering.

nucl-ex↗

arXiv2015

ARPES measurements of the superconducting gap of Fe-based superconductors and their implications to the pairing mechanism

Its direct momentum sensitivity confers to angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) a unique perspective in investigating the superconducting gap of multi-band systems. In this review we discuss ARPES studies on the superconducting gap of the high-temperature Fe-based superconductors. We show that while Fermi-surface-driven pairing mechanisms fail to provide a universal scheme for the Fe-based superconductors, theoretical approaches based on short-range interactions lead to a more robust and universal description of superconductivity in these materials. Our findings are also discussed in the broader context of unconventional superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Topological nature of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ superconductor

We demonstrate, using first-principles calculations, that the electronic structure of FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ ($x$=0.5) is topologically non-trivial, characterized by an odd $\mathbb Z_2$ invariant and Dirac cone type surface states, in sharp contrast to the end member FeSe ($x$=0). This topological state is induced by the enhanced three-dimensionality and spin-orbit coupling due to Te substitution (compared to FeSe), characterized by a band inversion at the $Z$ point of the Brillouin zone, which is confirmed by our ARPES measurements. The results suggest that the surface of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ may support a non-trivial superconducting channel in proximity to the bulk.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Raman study of lattice dynamics in Weyl semimetal TaAs

We report a polarized Raman study of Weyl semimetal TaAs. We observe all the optical phonons, with energies and symmetries consistent with our first-principles calculations. We detect additional excitations assigned to multiple-phonon excitations. These excitations are accompanied by broad peaks separated by 140~cm$^{-1}$ that are also most likely associated with multiple-phonon excitations. We also noticed a sizable B$_1$ component for the spectral background, for which the origin remains unclear.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗