Parallel spin-momentum locking in a chiral topological semimetal

Abstract

Spin-momentum locking in solids describes a directional relationship between the electron's spin angular momentum and its linear momentum over the entire Fermi surface. While orthogonal spin-momentum locking, such as Rashba spin-orbit coupling, has been studied for decades and inspired a vast number of applications, its natural counterpart, the purely parallel spin-momentum locking, has remained elusive in experiments. Recently, chiral topological semimetals that host single- and multifold band crossings have been predicted to realize such parallel locking. Here, we use spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy to probe spin-momentum locking of a multifold fermion in the chiral topological semimetal PtGa via the spin-texture of its topological Fermi-arc surface states. We find that the electron spin of the Fermi-arcs points orthogonal to their Fermi surface contour for momenta close to the projection of the bulk multifold fermion, which is consistent with parallel spin-momentum locking of the latter. We anticipate that our discovery of parallel spin-momentum locking of multifold fermions will lead to the integration of chiral topological semimetals in novel spintronic devices, and the search for spin-dependent superconducting and magnetic instabilities in these materials.

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• Current-induced spin polarisation in Rashba-Dresselhaus systems under different point groups
• Discovery of nodal-line superconductivity in chiral crystals
• Tunable Octdong and Spindle-Torus Fermi Surfaces in Kramers Nodal Line Metals
• Exotic Quantum States in Spin-1 Bose-Einstein Condensate with Spin-Orbit Coupling in Concentric Annular Traps
• Multiple types of spin textures and robust valley physics in MP${}_2$X${}_6$
• Investigating Quantum Spin-Textures Using Universal MJ Hamiltonians
• Fermi surface and topology of multiband superconductor BeAu
• A Kaleidoscope of Topological Structures in Dipolar Bose-Einstein Condensates with Weyl-Like Spin-Orbit Coupling in Anharmonic Trap
• Radial Rashba spin-orbit fields in commensurate twisted transition-metal dichalcogenide bilayers