Nodal Semimetals: A Survey on Optical Conductivity

Abstract

Among different topological and related phases of condensed matter, nodal semimetals occupy a special place - the electronic band topology in these materials is related to three-dimensional bulk, rather than to surface, states. A great variety of different realizations of electronic band crossings (the nodes) leads to a plethora of different electronic properties, ranging from the chiral anomaly to solid-state realizations of a black-hole horizon. The different nodal phases have similar low-energy band structure and quasiparticle dynamics, which both can be accessed experimentally by a number of methods. Optical measurements with their large penetration depth and high energy resolution are ideally suited as such a bulk probe; especially at low energies where other spectroscopic methods often lack the required resolution. In this contribution, we review recent optical-conductivity studies of different nodal semimetals, discuss possible limitations of such measurements, and provide a comparison between the experimental results, simple theoretical models, and band-structure-based calculations.

to appear in a special issue of pss(b) on topological materials

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Fermi-liquid behavior of non-altermagnetic RuO${}_2$
• Magneto-optical conductivity in generic Weyl semimetals
• Broadband optical conductivity of the chiral multifold semimetal PdGa
• Optical conductivity of bilayer dice lattices
• Lorentz-boost-driven magneto-optics in a Dirac nodal-line semimetal
• Dispersive Drumhead States in Nodal-Line Semimetal Junctions
• Magneto-optical response of the Weyl semimetal NbAs: Experimental results and hyperbolic-band computations
• Charge transport in chiral solids as a possible tool in search of dark matter signals
• Electric and chiral response to a pseudoelectric field in Weyl materials
• Quantum geometry and low-frequency optical conductivity of nodal planes
• Optical conductivity and band gap in the double-Weyl candidate SrSi2 at ambient pressure