Anomalous Linear and Quadratic Nodeless Surface Dirac Cones in Three-Dimensional Dirac Semimetals

TL;DR

This paper reveals two types of anomalous, nodeless surface Dirac cones in three-dimensional Dirac semimetals, exhibiting unique spin textures and quantized Berry phases, expanding the understanding of topological surface states.

Contribution

It uncovers the existence of nodeless surface Dirac cones with unique properties in 3D Dirac semimetals, differing from topological insulators, and explores their topological and response characteristics.

Findings

Presence of two types of nodeless surface Dirac cones with unique spin textures.

Quantized π Berry phases associated with these Dirac cones.

Distinct responses of surface and bulk Dirac cones under time-reversal symmetry breaking.

Abstract

Surface Dirac cones in three-dimensional topological insulators have generated tremendous and enduring interest for almost two decades owing to hosting a multitude of exotic properties. In this work, we unveil the existence of two types of anomalous surface Dirac cones in three-dimensional Dirac semimetals. These surface Dirac cones are located at the surfaces perpendicular to the rotation symmetry axis, and are found to display a number of features remarkably different from that in topological insulators. The most prominent one is the absence of singular Dirac node. In addition, the spin textures of these nodeless surface Dirac cones are found to exhibit a unique two-phase-angle dependence, leading to the presence of two different winding numbers in the orbital-resolved spin textures, which is rather different from the well-known spin-momentum locking in topological insulators. Despite the absence of Dirac node, we find that the two types of surface Dirac cones are also characterized by quantized $\pi$ Berry phases, even though one of them takes a quadratic dispersion. In the presence of time-reversal-symmetry-breaking fields, we find that the responses of the surface and bulk Dirac cones display an interesting bulk-surface correspondence. The uncovering of these nodeless surface Dirac cones broadens our understanding of the topological surface states and bulk-boundary correspondence in Dirac semimetals, and also lays down the basis for studying unconventional Dirac physics.