Embedded Topological Semimetals

Abstract

Topological semimetals, such as Dirac, Weyl, or line-node semimetals, are gapless states of matter characterized by their nodal band structures and surface states. In this work, we consider layered (topologically trivial) insulating systems in $D$ dimensions that are composed of coupled multi-layers of $d$-dimensional topological semimetals. Despite being nominal bulk insulators, we show that crystal defects having co-dimension $(D-d)$ can harbor robust lower dimensional topological semimetals embedded in a trivial insulating background. As an example we show that defect-bound topological semimetals can be localized on stacking faults and partial dislocations. Finally, we propose how an embedded topological Dirac semimetal can be identified in experiment by introducing a magnetic field and resolving the relativistic massless Dirac Landau level spectrum at low energies in an otherwise gapped system.

Published Version

References in corpus (18)

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Nontrivial gapless electronic states at the stacking faults of weak topological insulators
• Dynamic melting and condensation of topological dislocation modes
• Dispersive nodal fermions along grain boundaries in Floquet topological crystals
• Observation of Embedded Topology in a Trivial Bulk via Projective Crystal Symmetry
• Symmetry-protected topological wire in a topological vacuum
• Projected branes as platforms for crystalline, superconducting, and higher-order topological phases
• Topological properties of domain walls in antiferromagnetic topological insulators