Electron scattering by magnetic impurity in Weyl semimetals

Weyl semimetals are prominent examples of topologically protected quantum matter. These materials are the three-dimensional counterparts of graphene and great efforts are being devoted to achieve a thorough understanding of their fundamental physics. In this work, we aim at contributing to this end...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Díaz Fernández, Álvaro, Domínguez-Adame Acosta, Francisco, De Abril Torralba, Óscar
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)
Repositorio:Docta Complutense
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:docta.ucm.es:20.500.14352/4424
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/4424
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:538.9
Dirac
Transport
Surface
Discovery
Fermion
Weyl semimetal
Magnetic impurity
Electron scattering
Física de materiales
Física del estado sólido
2211 Física del Estado Sólido
Descripción
Sumario:Weyl semimetals are prominent examples of topologically protected quantum matter. These materials are the three-dimensional counterparts of graphene and great efforts are being devoted to achieve a thorough understanding of their fundamental physics. In this work, we aim at contributing to this end by discussing the effect of a single magnetic impurity in Weyl semimetals as a first step towards considering a larger number of point-like impurities. We find that resonances appear in the local density of states (LDOS) with a Friedel-like behaviour, oscillating as a function of distance. By studying the spin-resolved LDOS, we can observe non-trivial and anisotropic spin textures where the spin components perpendicular to the spin of the impurity wind around the latter, until the spin becomes completely parallel to the impurity right at the impurity's location. Friedel oscillations also play a relevant role in the form of the spin textures, forming an oscillatory pattern. We believe our results can pave the way to further studies which consider the presence of a large number of random magnetic impurities.