An ultrafast symmetry switch in a Weyl semimetal

Edbert J Sie^{1

2}, Clara M Nyby³, C D Pemmaraju², Su Ji Park², Xiaozhe Shen⁴, Jie Yang^{4

5}, Matthias C Hoffmann⁴, B K Ofori-Okai^{4

6}, Renkai Li⁴, Alexander H Reid⁴, Stephen Weathersby⁴, Ehren Mannebach⁷, Nathan Finney⁸, Daniel Rhodes^{9

10

8}, Daniel Chenet⁸, Abhinandan Antony⁸, Luis Balicas^{9

10}, James Hone⁸, Thomas P Devereaux^{1

2}, Tony F Heinz^{2

5

11}, Xijie Wang⁴, Aaron M Lindenberg^{12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
² SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁵ PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹¹ Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹² SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.
¹³ PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.

PMID: 30602749
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0809-4

An ultrafast symmetry switch in a Weyl semimetal

Edbert J Sie et al. Nature. 2019 Jan.

. 2019 Jan;565(7737):61-66.

doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0809-4. Epub 2019 Jan 2.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
² SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
³ Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁴ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁵ PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
⁹ National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
¹¹ Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
¹² SIMES, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.
¹³ PULSE Institute, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.
¹⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. aaronl@stanford.edu.

PMID: 30602749
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0809-4

Abstract

Topological quantum materials exhibit fascinating properties^1-3, with important applications for dissipationless electronics and fault-tolerant quantum computers^4,5. Manipulating the topological invariants in these materials would allow the development of topological switching applications analogous to switching of transistors⁶. Lattice strain provides the most natural means of tuning these topological invariants because it directly modifies the electron-ion interactions and potentially alters the underlying crystalline symmetry on which the topological properties depend^7-9. However, conventional means of applying strain through heteroepitaxial lattice mismatch¹⁰ and dislocations¹¹ are not extendable to controllable time-varying protocols, which are required in transistors. Integration into a functional device requires the ability to go beyond the robust, topologically protected properties of materials and to manipulate the topology at high speeds. Here we use crystallographic measurements by relativistic electron diffraction to demonstrate that terahertz light pulses can be used to induce terahertz-frequency interlayer shear strain with large strain amplitude in the Weyl semimetal WTe₂, leading to a topologically distinct metastable phase. Separate nonlinear optical measurements indicate that this transition is associated with a symmetry change to a centrosymmetric, topologically trivial phase. We further show that such shear strain provides an ultrafast, energy-efficient way of inducing robust, well separated Weyl points or of annihilating all Weyl points of opposite chirality. This work demonstrates possibilities for ultrafast manipulation of the topological properties of solids and for the development of a topological switch operating at terahertz frequencies.

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An ultrafast symmetry switch in a Weyl semimetal

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An ultrafast symmetry switch in a Weyl semimetal

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