Transport signatures of surface states in a Weyl semimetal: evidence of field driven Fermi arc interferometry

Abstract

A signature property of Weyl semimetals is the existence of topologically protected surface states - arcs in momentum space that connect Weyl points in the bulk. However, the presence of bulks states makes detection of surface contributions to the transport challenging. Here we present a magnetoresistance study of high-quality samples of the prototypical Weyl semimetal, TaAs. By measuring the Shubnikov de Haas effect, we reveal the presence of a two-dimensional cyclotron orbit. This orbit is quantitatively consistent with the interference of coherent quasiparticles traversing two distinct Fermi arcs on the [001] crystallographic surface. The observation of this effect suggests that high magnetic fields can be used to study not only the transport properties of Fermi arcs, but also the interference of their quantum mechanical wavefunctions.

arXiv comment13 pages, 5 figures

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• Weyl nodes close to the Fermi energy in NbAs
• Quantum transport observed in films of magnetic topological semimetal EuSb${}_2$
• Nanoscale devices with superconducting electrodes to locally channel current in 3D Weyl semimetals
• Quantum Oscillation Signatures of Fermi Arcs in Tunnel Magnetoconductance
• Quantum description of Fermi arcs in Weyl semimetals in a magnetic field
• High-pressure control of optical nonlinearity in the polar Weyl semimetal TaAs
• Magneto-transport evidence for strong topological insulator phase in ZrTe5