Symmetry-protected ideal Weyl semimetal in HgTe-class materials

TL;DR

This paper predicts that HgTe-class materials, under strain, can naturally realize ideal Weyl semimetals with Weyl nodes at the Fermi level and no trivial Fermi surfaces, enabling exploration of exotic physics.

Contribution

It identifies HgTe and half-Heusler compounds as promising candidates for ideal Weyl semimetals under strain, expanding the material landscape for topological physics.

Findings

HgTe and half-Heusler compounds can host ideal Weyl semimetals under strain.

These materials exhibit four pairs of Weyl nodes and topological Fermi arcs.

Potential to study Weyl fermions and superconductivity interplay in LaPtBi.

Abstract

Ideal Weyl semimetals with all Weyl nodes exactly at the Fermi level and no coexisting trivial Fermi surfaces in the bulk, similar to graphene, could feature deep physics such as exotic transport phenomena induced by the chiral anomaly. Here, we show that HgTe and half-Heusler compounds, under a broad range of in-plane compressive strain, could be materials in nature realizing ideal Weyl semimetals with four pairs of Weyl nodes and topological surface Fermi arcs. Generically, we find that the HgTe-class materials with nontrivial band inversion and noncentrosymmetry provide a promising arena to realize ideal Weyl semimetals. Such ideal Weyl semimetals could further provide a unique platform to study emergent phenomena such as the interplay between ideal Weyl fermions and superconductivity in the half-Heusler compound LaPtBi.