Engineering exotic second-order topological semimetals by periodic driving

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to generate exotic second-order topological semimetals using periodic driving, enabling tunable topological features and hybrid phases, expanding the landscape of topological materials.

Contribution

The authors introduce a scheme to create novel Dirac SOTSMs and hybrid Weyl semimetals with tunable properties through periodic driving, including breaking time-reversal symmetry.

Findings

Generated Dirac SOTSMs with tunable nodes and hinge Fermi arcs

Realized hybrid Weyl semimetals with coexisting hinge and surface Fermi arcs

Demonstrated rich hybrid topological phases combining insulators and semimetals

Abstract

Second-order topological semimetals (SOTSMs) are featured with hinge Fermi arcs. How to generate them in different systems has attracted much attention. We propose a scheme to create exotic SOTSMs by periodic driving. Novel Dirac SOTSMs, with a widely tunable number of nodes and hinge Fermi arcs, the adjacent nodes having the same chirality, and the coexisting nodal points and loops, are generated at ease by the periodic driving. When the time-reversal symmetry is broken, our scheme permits us to realize hybrid-order Weyl semimetals with the coexisting hinge and surface Fermi arcs. Our Weyl semimetals possess a rich hybrid of 2D sliced zero- and $\pi/T$-mode topological phases, which may be any combination of the normal insulator, Chern insulator, and second-order topological insulator. Enriching the family of topological semimetals, our scheme supplies a convenient way to artificially synthesize exotic topological phases by periodic driving.