Dirac fermions and flat bands in the ideal kagome metal FeSn

TL;DR

This study demonstrates the coexistence of Dirac fermions and flat bands in the ideal kagome metal FeSn, revealing complex electronic structures with potential for topological and spintronic applications.

Contribution

It provides the first direct observation of coexisting Dirac fermions and flat bands in an ideal 2D kagome metal, combining ARPES, dHvA, and theoretical calculations.

Findings

Detection of momentum-space signatures of flat bands and Dirac fermions near the Fermi energy.

Observation of robust surface Dirac fermions on specific crystal terminations.

Identification of spin-polarized 2D Dirac fermions with spin-layer locking in FeSn.

Abstract

The kagome lattice based on 3d transition metals is a versatile platform for novel topological phases hosting symmetry-protected electronic excitations and exotic magnetic ground states. However, the paradigmatic states of the idealized two-dimensional (2D) kagome lattice - Dirac fermions and topological flat bands - have not been simultaneously observed, partly owing to the complex stacking structure of the kagome compounds studied to date. Here, we take the approach of examining FeSn, an antiferromagnetic single-layer kagome metal with spatially-decoupled kagome planes. Using polarization- and termination-dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we detect the momentum-space signatures of coexisting flat bands and Dirac fermions in the vicinity of the Fermi energy. Intriguingly, when complemented with bulk-sensitive de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) measurements, our data reveal an even richer electronic structure that exhibits robust surface Dirac fermions on specific crystalline terminations. Through band structure calculations and matrix element simulations, we demonstrate that the bulk Dirac bands arise from in-plane localized Fe-3d orbitals under kagome symmetry, while the surface state realizes a rare example of fully spin-polarized 2D Dirac fermions when combined with spin-layer locking in FeSn. These results highlight FeSn as a prototypical host for the emergent excitations of the kagome lattice. The prospect to harness these excitations for novel topological phases and spintronic devices is a frontier of great promise at the confluence of topology, magnetism, and strongly-correlated electron physics.