Observation of Weyl and Dirac fermions at smooth topological Volkov-Pankratov heterojunctions

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that smooth topological interfaces host coexisting Weyl and Dirac fermions, with their energy spectra controllable by interface smoothness, providing a new platform to explore relativistic phenomena in condensed matter.

Contribution

It reveals the coexistence of Weyl and Dirac fermions at smooth topological heterojunctions and shows how their spectra are controlled by interface smoothness, a novel insight in topological matter.

Findings

Coexistence of Weyl and Dirac fermions at smooth interfaces.

Energy spectrum of fermions is controlled by interface smoothness.

Optical absorption reveals properties of chiral Weyl states.

Abstract

Weyl and Dirac relativistic fermions are ubiquitous in topological matter. Their relativistic character enables high energy physics phenomena like the chiral anomaly to occur in solid state, which allows to experimentally probe and explore fundamental relativistic theories. Here we show that on smooth interfaces between a trivial and a topological material, massless Weyl and massive Dirac fermions intrinsically coexist. The emergence of the latter, known as Volkov-Pankratov states, is directly revealed by magneto-optical spectroscopy, evidencing that their energy spectrum is perfectly controlled by the smoothness of topological interface. Simultaneously, we reveal the optical absorption of the zero-energy chiral Weyl state, whose wavefunction is drastically transformed when the topological interface is smooth. Artificial engineering of the topology profile thus provides a novel textbook system to explore the rich relativistic energy spectra in condensed matter heterostructures.