Signature of weakly coupled $f$ electrons and conduction electrons in magnetic Weyl semimetal candidates PrAlSi and SmAlSi

Abstract

Magnetic topological materials are a class of compounds with the underlying interplay of nontrivial band topology and magnetic spin configuration. Extensive interests have been aroused due to their application potential involved with an array of exotic quantum states. With angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and first-principles calculations, here we study the electronic properties of two magnetic Weyl semimetal candidates PrAlSi and SmAlSi. Though the two compounds harbor distinct magnetic ground states (ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic for PrAlSi and SmAlSi, respectively) and 4$f$ shell fillings, we find that they share quite analogous low-energy band structure. By the measurements across the magnetic transitions, we further reveal that there is no evident evolution of the band structure in both compounds and the experimental spectra can be well reproduced by the nonmagnetic calculations, together suggesting a negligible effect of the magnetism on their electronic structures and a possibly weak coupling between the localized 4$f$ electrons and the itinerant conduction electrons. Our results offer essential insights into the interactions between magnetism, electron correlations, and topological orders in the $R$Al$X$ ($R$ = light rare earth and $X$ = Si or Ge) family.

7 pages, 3 figures

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• Optical signatures of type-II Weyl fermions in the noncentrosymmetric semimetals $R$AlSi ($R$=La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm)
• Non-Hermitian Boundary in a Surface Selective Reconstructed Magnetic Weyl Semimetal
• Structural characterization of the candidate Weyl semimetal CeGaGe
• Anomalous Hall effect in the antiferromagnetic Weyl semimetal SmAlSi
• Zone-selection effect of photoelectron intensity distributions in a nonsymmorphic system RAlSi (R : Ce and Nd)
• Crystalline electric field excitations in Weyl semimetal \textit{R}AlSi (\textit{R} = Ce, Pr and Nd)
• Incommensurate magnetic order drives singular angular magnetoresistance in a Weyl semimetal
• Giant-exchange-driven Vectorial Control of a Minimal Topological Magnet in Eu3In2As4