Electron-hole pairing of Fermi-arc surface states in a Weyl-semimetal bilayer

TL;DR

This paper predicts that in a Weyl-semimetal bilayer, electron-hole pairing of Fermi-arc surface states can occur, leading to a partial gap and observable effects on quantum oscillations, with properties depending on Weyl point separation.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model for excitonic pairing of Fermi-arc states in Weyl-semimetal bilayers, highlighting the dependence on Weyl point separation and surface curvature.

Findings

Interlayer Coulomb interaction can induce electron-hole pairing.

The energy gap scales linearly with Weyl point separation.

Surface curvature reduces pairing robustness.

Abstract

The topological nature of Weyl semimetals (WSMs) is corroborated by the presence of chiral surface states, which connect the projections of the bulk Weyl points by Fermi arcs (FAs). We study a bilayer structure realized by introducing a thin insulating spacer into a bulk WSM. Employing a self-consistent mean-field description of the interlayer Coulomb interaction, we propose that this system can develop an interlayer electron-hole pair condensate. The formation of this excitonic condensate leads to partial gapping of the FA dispersion. We obtain the dependence of the energy gap and the critical temperature on the model parameters, finding, in particular, a linear scaling of these quantities with the separation between the Weyl points in momentum space. A detrimental role is played by the curvature of the FAs, although the pairing persists for moderately small curvature. A signature of the condensate is the modification of the quantum oscillations involving the surface FAs.