Multi-terminal Conductance at the Surface of a Weyl Semimetal

TL;DR

This paper uses atomistic simulations to explore the conductance and quantum Hall effects on the surface of Weyl semimetals, revealing robust quantized Hall conductance linked to Fermi arc states and persistent currents influenced by system size.

Contribution

It demonstrates the robustness of quantized Hall conductance associated with Fermi arcs and predicts size-dependent persistent currents in Weyl semimetal slabs.

Findings

Quantized Hall conductance linked to Fermi arc surface states.

Robustness of conductance against high defect concentrations.

Prediction of size-dependent persistent currents.

Abstract

Weyl semimetals are a new paradigmatic topological phase of matter featuring a gapless spectrum. One of its most distinctive features is the presence of Fermi arc surface states. Here, we report on atomistic simulations of the dc conductance and quantum Hall response of a minimal Weyl semimetal. By using scattering theory we show that a quantized Hall conductance with a non-vanishing longitudinal conductance emerges associated to the Fermi arc surface states with a remarkable robustness to high concentrations of defects in the system. Additionally, we predict that a slab of a Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry bears persistent currents fully determined by the system size and the lattice parameters.