High temperature ideal Weyl semimetal phase and Chern insulator phase in ferromagnetic BaEuNiOsO6 and its (111) (BaEuNiOsO6)/(BaTiO3)10 superlattice

TL;DR

This paper predicts that the cubic double perovskite BaEuNiOsO6 is a high-temperature ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal with a (111) superlattice that acts as a Chern insulator, promising for topological physics and applications.

Contribution

It introduces BaEuNiOsO6 as a high-temperature magnetic Weyl semimetal and its (111) superlattice as a high-temperature Chern insulator based on first-principles calculations.

Findings

BaEuNiOsO6 is a ferromagnetic Weyl semimetal with Tc=325 K.

The (111) superlattice acts as a high-temperature Chern insulator with a 190 meV band gap.

Large anomalous Hall conductivity and long Fermi arcs are observed.

Abstract

Weyl semimetals (WSMs) have recently stimulated intensive interest because they exhibit fascinating physical properties and also promise exciting technological applications. So far, however, the few conrmed magnetic WSMs generally have a large number of Weyl points either located away from the Fermi level (EF ) or shrouded by nontopological Fermi surface pockets. Based on first principles density functional theory calculations, we establish cubic double perovskite BaEuNiOsO6 to be a high Curie temperature (Tc) ferromagnetic WSM with magnetization along the [111] direction, just two pairs of Weyl points at the EF and Tc = 325 K. The strong ferromagnetism is attributed to the strong ferromagnetic Ni 3d-Eu 4f-Os 5d coupling induced by the substitution of half of Ba atoms with Eu atoms in double perovskite Ba2NiOsO6. Moreover, the momentum separation of one Weyl point pair is large, thus giving rise to not only a long (001) surface Fermi arc but also large anomalous Hall conductivity. Intriguingly, as a unique physical result of a ferromagnetic WSM, the (111) BaEuNiOsO6 monolayer superlattice (BaEuNiOsO6)/(BaTiO3)10, being its (111) quantum-well structure, is found to be a high temperature (Tc = 210 K) Chern insulator with a large band gap of 190 meV. Therefore, cubic double perovskite BaEuNiOsO6 will provide a superior high temperature material plotform for exploring fundamental physics of Weyl fermions and its (111) monolayer superlattices will offer a high temperature magnetic topological insulator for studying exotic quantum phenomena such as quantum anomalous Hall effect.