Unconventional free charge in the correlated semimetal Nd2Ir2O7
- Wang, K. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Xu, Bing Department of Physics and Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland
- Rischau, C. W. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Bachar, N. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Michon, B. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Teyssier, J. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Qiu, Y. Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
- Ohtsuki, T. Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan
- Cheng, Bing The Institute for Quantum Matter and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Armitage, N. P. The Institute for Quantum Matter and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
- Nakatsuji, S. Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan - The Institute for Quantum Matter and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA - CREST, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Kawaguchi, Saitama, Japan - Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- van der Marel, D. Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
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29.06.2020
Published in:
- Nature Physics. - 2020, vol. 16, no. 12, p. 1194-1198
English
Nd2Ir2O7 is a correlated semimetal with the pyrochlore structure, in which competing spin–orbit coupling and electron–electron interactions are believed to induce a time- reversal symmetry-broken Weyl semimetal phase characterized by pairs of topologically protected Dirac points at the Fermi energy1,2,3,4. However, the emergent properties in these materials are far from clear, and exotic new states of matter have been conjectured5,6,7. Here, we demonstrate optically that, at low temperatures, the free carrier spectral weight is proportional to T2, where T is the temperature, as expected for massless Dirac electrons. However, we do not observe the corresponding T3 term in the specific heat. That the system is not in a Fermi liquid state is further corroborated by the charge carrier scattering rate approaching critical damping and the progressive opening of a correlation-induced gap at low temperatures. These observations cannot be reconciled within the framework of band theory of electron-like quasiparticles and point towards the effective decoupling of the charge transport from the single particle sector.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Département de Physique
- Language
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- English
- Classification
- Physics
- License
- License undefined
- Identifiers
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- RERO DOC 328870
- DOI 10.1038/s41567-020-0955-0
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/308747
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