Chirality locking charge density waves in a chiral crystal

Abstract

In Weyl semimetals, charge density wave (CDW) order can spontaneously break the chiral symmetry, gap out the Weyl nodes, and drive the material into the axion insulating phase. Investigations have however been limited since CDWs are rarely seen in Weyl semimetals. Here, using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, we report the discovery of a novel unidirectional CDW order on the (001) surface of chiral crystal CoSi - a unique Weyl semimetal with unconventional chiral fermions. The CDW is incommensurate with both lattice momentum and crystalline symmetry directions, and exhibits an intra unit cell π phase shift in the layer stacking direction. The tunneling spectrum shows a particle-hole asymmetric V-shaped energy gap around the Fermi level that modulates spatially with the CDW wave vector. Combined with first-principle calculations, we identify that the CDW is locked to the crystal chirality and is related by a mirror reflection between the two enantiomers of the chiral crystal. Our findings reveal a novel correlated topological quantum state in chiral CoSi crystals and raise the potential for realizing an axion insulator and exploring the unprecedented physical behaviors of unconventional chiral fermions.

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• Origin of Charge Density Wave in Topological Semimetals SrAl4 and EuAl4
• Understanding chiral charge-density wave by frozen chiral phonon
• Discovery of a Topological Charge Density Wave
• Emergent Chern-Simons Interactions in 3+1 Dimensions
• Chiral Floquet Engineering on Topological Fermions in Chiral Crystals
• Chiral Meissner effect in time-reversal invariant Weyl superconductors
• Chiral charge density wave and backscattering-immune orbital texture in monolayer 1T-TiTe2
• Photo-induced Dynamics and Momentum Distribution of Chiral Charge Density Waves in 1T-TiSe${}_2$
• Relativistic horizon of interacting Weyl fermions in condensed matter systems
• Discovery of nodal-line superconductivity in chiral crystals