Dirac fermions in an antiferromagnetic semimetal

Analogues of the elementary particles have been extensively searched for in condensed-matter systems for both scientific interest and technological applications1, 2, 3. Recently, massless Dirac fermions were found to emerge as low-energy excitations in materials now known as Dirac semimetals4, 5, 6....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature physics 2016-12, Vol.12 (12), p.1100-1104
Main Authors: Tang, Peizhe, Zhou, Quan, Xu, Gang, Zhang, Shou-Cheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antiferromagnetism
Atoms & subatomic particles
Condensed matter physics
CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Dispersions
Electronic properties and materials
Elementary particles
Fermions
Mathematical analysis
Metalloids
Robustness
Symmetry
Topological insulators
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Summary:Analogues of the elementary particles have been extensively searched for in condensed-matter systems for both scientific interest and technological applications1, 2, 3. Recently, massless Dirac fermions were found to emerge as low-energy excitations in materials now known as Dirac semimetals4, 5, 6. All of the currently known Dirac semimetals are non-magnetic with both time-reversal symmetry and inversion symmetry 7, 8, 9. Here we show that Dirac fermions can exist in one type of antiferromagnetic system, where both and are broken but their combination is respected. We propose orthorhombic antiferromagnet CuMnAs as a candidate, analyse the robustness of the Dirac points under symmetry protections and demonstrate its distinctive bulk dispersions, as well as the corresponding surface states, by ab initio calculations. Our results provide a possible platform to study the interplay of Dirac fermion physics and magnetism.
ISSN:1745-2473
1745-2481
DOI:10.1038/nphys3839