Discovering topological surface states of Dirac points

Abstract

Dirac materials, unlike the Weyl materials, have not been found in experiments to support intrinsic topological surface states, as the surface arcs in existing systems are unstable against symmetry-preserving perturbations. Utilizing the proposed glide and time-reversal symmetries, we theoretically design and experimentally verify an acoustic crystal of two frequency-isolated three-dimensional Dirac points with $Z_2$ monopole charges and four gapless helicoid surface states.

14 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables