arXiv subjects

Shunye Gao

Publications and source records attributed to Shunye Gao.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Non-equilibrium States and Interactions in the Topological Insulator and Topological Crystalline Insulator Phases of NaCd4As3

Topological materials are of great interest because they can support metallic edge or surface states that are robust against perturbations, with the potential for technological applications. Here we experimentally explore the light-induced non-equilibrium properties of two distinct topological phases in NaCd4As3: a topological crystalline insulator (TCI) phase and a topological insulator (TI) phase. This material has surface states that are protected by mirror symmetry in the TCI phase at room temperature, while it undergoes a structural phase transition to a TI phase below 200 K. After exciting the TI phase by an ultrafast laser pulse, we observe a leading band edge shift of >150 meV, that slowly builds up and reaches a maximum after ~0.6 ps, and that persists for ~8 ps. The slow rise time of the excited electron population and electron temperature suggests that the electronic and structural orders are strongly coupled in this TI phase. It also suggests that the directly excited electronic states and the probed electronic states are weakly coupled. Both couplings are likely due to a partial relaxation of the lattice distortion, which is known to be associated with the TI phase. In contrast, no distinct excited state is observed in the TCI phase immediately or after photoexcitation, which we attribute to the low density of states and phase space available near the Fermi level. Our results show how ultrafast laser excitation can reveal the distinct excited states and interactions in phase-rich topological materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Evidence for an Excitonic Insulator State in Ta$_2$Pd$_3$Te$_5$

The excitonic insulator (EI) is an exotic ground state of narrow-gap semiconductors and semimetals arising from spontaneous condensation of electron-hole pairs bound by attractive Coulomb interaction. Despite research on EIs dating back to half a century ago, their existence in real materials remains a subject of ongoing debate. In this study, through systematic experimental and theoretical investigations, we provide evidence for the existence of an EI ground state in a van der Waals compound Ta$_2$Pd$_3$Te$_5$. Density-functional-theory calculations suggest that it is a semimetal with a small band overlap, whereas various experiments exhibit an insulating ground state with a clear band gap. Upon incorporating electron-hole Coulomb interaction into our calculations, we obtain an EI phase where the electronic symmetry breaking opens a many-body gap. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements exhibit that the band gap is closed with a significant change in the dispersions as the number of thermally excited charge carriers becomes sufficiently large in both equilibrium and nonequilibrium states. Structural measurements reveal a slight breaking of crystal symmetry with exceptionally small lattice distortion in the insulating state, which cannot account for the significant gap opening. Therefore, we attribute the insulating ground state with a gap opening in Ta$_2$Pd$_3$Te$_5$ to exciton condensation, where the coupling to the symmetry-breaking electronic state induces a subtle change in the crystal structure.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Discovery of a Single-Band Mott Insulator in a van der Waals Flat-Band Compound

The Mott insulator provides an excellent foundation for exploring a wide range of strongly correlated physical phenomena, such as high-temperature superconductivity, quantum spin liquid, and colossal magnetoresistance. A Mott insulator with the simplest degree of freedom is an ideal and highly desirable system for studying the fundamental physics of Mottness. In this study, we have unambiguously identified such an anticipated Mott insulator in a van der Waals layered compound Nb3Cl8. In the high-temperature phase, where interlayer coupling is negligible, density functional theory calculations for the monolayer of Nb3Cl8 suggest a half-filled flat band at the Fermi level, whereas angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments observe a large gap. This observation is perfectly reproduced by dynamical mean-field theory calculations considering strong electron correlations, indicating a correlation-driven Mott insulator state. Since this half-filled band derived from a single 2a1 orbital is isolated from all other bands, the monolayer of Nb3Cl8 is an ideal realization of the celebrated single-band Hubbard model. Upon decreasing the temperature, the bulk system undergoes a phase transition, where structural changes significantly enhance the interlayer coupling. This results in a bonding-antibonding splitting in the Hubbard bands, while the Mott gap remains dominant. Our discovery provides a simple and seminal model system for investigating Mott physics and other emerging correlated states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Observation of Fermi arcs and Weyl nodes in a non-centrosymmetric magnetic Weyl semimetal

Weyl semimetal (WSM), a novel state of quantum matter, hosts Weyl fermions as emergent quasiparticles resulting from the breaking of either inversion or time-reversal symmetry. Magnetic WSMs that arise from broken time-reversal symmetry provide an exceptional platform to understand the interplay between magnetic order and Weyl physics, but few WSMs have been realized. Here, we identify CeAlSi as a new non-centrosymmetric magnetic WSM via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and first-principles, density-functional theory based calculations. Our surface-sensitive vacuum ultraviolet ARPES data confirms the presence of surface Fermi arcs as, the smoking gun evidence for the existence of the Weyl semimetallic state in CeAlSi. We also observe bulk Weyl cones in CeAlSi using bulk-sensitive soft-X-ray ARPES measurements. In addition, Ce 4f at bands are found near the Fermi level, indicating that CeAlSi is a unique platform for investigating exotic quantum phenomena resulting from the interaction of topology, magnetism and electronic correlations.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Evolution of the strange-metal scattering in momentum space of electron-doped ${\rm La}_{2-x}{\rm Ce}_x{\rm CuO}_4$

The linear-in-temperature resistivity is one of the important mysteries in the strange metal state of high-temperature cuprate superconductors. To uncover this anomalous property, the energy-momentum-dependent imaginary part of the self-energy Im ${\rm Σ}(k, ω)$ holds the key information. Here we perform systematic doping, momentum, and temperature-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements of electron-doped cuprate ${\rm La}_{2-x}{\rm Ce}_x{\rm CuO}_4$ and extract the evolution of the strange metal scattering in momentum space. At low doping levels and low temperatures, Im ${\rmΣ} \propto ω$ dependence dominates the whole momentum space. For high doping levels and high temperatures, Im ${\rmΣ} \propto ω^2$ shows up, starting from the antinodal region. By comparing with the hole-doped cuprates ${\rm La}_{2-x}{\rm Sr}_x{\rm CuO}_4$ and ${\rm Bi}_2{\rm Sr}_2{\rm CaCu}_2{\rm O}_8$, we find a dichotomy of the scattering rate exists along the nodal and antinodal direction, which is ubiquitous in the cuprate family. Our work provides new insight into the strange metal state in cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Tunable Topological Dirac Surface States and Van Hove Singularities in Kagome Metal GdV${_6}$Sn${_6}$

Transition-metal-based kagome materials at van Hove filling are a rich frontier for the investigation of novel topological electronic states and correlated phenomena. To date, in the idealized two-dimensional kagome lattice, topologically nontrivial Dirac surface states (TDSSs) have not been unambiguously observed, and the manipulation of TDSSs and van Hove singularities (VHSs) remains largely unexplored. Here, we reveal TDSSs originating from a Z${_2}$ bulk topology and identify multiple VHSs near the Fermi level ($\textit{E}$${_F}$) in magnetic kagome material GdV${_6}$Sn${_6}$. Using in-situ surface potassium deposition, we successfully realize manipulation of the TDSSs and VHSs. The Dirac point of the TDSSs can be tuned from above to below ($\textit{E}$${_F}$), which reverses the chirality of the spin texture at the Fermi surface. These results establish GdV${_6}$Sn${_6}$ as a fascinating platform for studying the nontrivial topology, magnetism and correlation effects native to kagome lattices. They also suggest potential application of spintronic devices based on kagome materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Charge instability of topological Fermi arcs in chiral crystal CoSi

Topological boundary states, emerged at the spatial boundary between topological non-trivial and trivial phases, are usually gapless, or commonly referred as metallic states. For example, the surface state of a topological insulator is a gapless Dirac state. These metallic topological boundary states are typically well described by non-interacting fermions. However, the behavior of topological boundary states with significant electron-electron interactions, which could turn the gapless boundary states into gapped ordered states, e.g., density wave states or superconducting states, is of great interest theoretically, but is still lacking evidence experimentally. Here, we report the observation of incommensurable charge density wave (CDW) formed on the topological boundary states driven by the electron-electron interactions on the (001) surface of CoSi. The wavevector of CDW varies as the temperature changes, which coincides with the evolution of topological surface Fermi arcs with temperature. The orientation of CDW phase is determined by the chirality of the Fermi arcs, which indicates direct association between CDW and Fermi arcs. Our finding will stimulate the search of more interactions-driven ordered states, such as superconductivity and magnetism, on the boundaries of topological materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2021

Discovery of Ĉ$_2$ rotation anomaly in topological crystalline insulator SrPb

Topological crystalline insulators (TCIs) are insulating electronic states with nontrivial topology protected by crystalline symmetries. Recently, theory has proposed new classes of TCIs protected by rotation symmetries Ĉ$_n$, which have surface rotation anomaly evading the fermion doubling theorem, i.e. n instead of 2n Dirac cones on the surface preserving the rotation symmetry. Here, we report the first realization of the Ĉ$_2$ rotation anomaly in a binary compound SrPb. Our first-principles calculations reveal two massless Dirac fermions protected by the combination of time-reversal symmetry T and Ĉ$_{2y}$ on the (010) surface. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we identify two Dirac surface states inside the bulk band gap of SrPb, confirming the Ĉ$_2$ rotation anomaly in the new classes of TCIs. The findings enrich the classification of topological phases, which pave the way for exploring exotic behaviour of the new classes of TCIs.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Spectroscopic Evidence on Realization of a Genuine Topological Nodal Line Semimetal in LaSbTe

The nodal line semimetals have attracted much attention due to their unique topological electronic structure and exotic physical properties. A genuine nodal line semimetal is qualified by the presence of Dirac nodes along a line in the momentum space that are protected against the spin-orbit coupling. In addition, it requires that the Dirac points lie close to the Fermi level allowing to dictate the macroscopic physical properties. Although the material realization of nodal line semimetals have been theoretically predicted in numerous compounds, only a few of them have been experimentally verified and the realization of a genuine nodal line semimetal is particularly rare. Here we report the realization of a genuine nodal line semimetal in LaSbTe. We investigated the electronic structure of LaSbTe by band structure calculations and angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) measurements. Taking spin-orbit coupling into account, our band structure calculations predict that a nodal line is formed in the boundary surface of the Brillouin zone which is robust and lies close to the Fermi level. The Dirac nodes along the X-R line in momentum space are directly observed in our ARPES measurements and the energies of these Dirac nodes are all close to the Fermi level. These results constitute clear evidence that LaSbTe is a genuine nodal line semimetal,providing a new platform to explore for novel phenomena and possible applications associated with the nodal line semimetals.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Magnetic topological insulator MnBi6Te10 with zero-field ferromagnetic state and gapped Dirac surface states

Magnetic topological insulators (TIs) with nontrivial topological electronic structure and broken time-reversal symmetry exhibit various exotic topological quantum phenomena. The realization of such exotic phenomena at high temperature is one of central topics in this area. We reveal that MnBi6Te10 is a magnetic TI with an antiferromagnetic ground state below 10.8 K whose nontrivial topology is manifested by Dirac-like surface states. The ferromagnetic axion insulator state with Z4 = 2 emerges once spins polarized at field as low as 0.1 T, accompanied with saturated anomalous Hall resistivity up to 10 K. Such a ferromagnetic state is preserved even external field down to zero at 2 K. Theoretical calculations indicate that the few-layer ferromagnetic MnBi6Te10 is also topologically nontrivial with a non-zero Chern number. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments further reveal three types of Dirac surface states arising from different terminations on the cleavage surfaces, one of which has insulating behavior with an energy gap of ~ 28 meV at the Dirac point. These outstanding features suggest that MnBi6Te10 is a promising system to realize various topological quantum effects at zero field and high temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗