Researchers at the Ohio State University NSF-funded Center for Emergent Materials, graduate student Tim McCormick working with Professor Nandini Trivedi (Physics), and groups of Professor Adam Kaminski (Iowa State University) and Dr. Jiaqiang Yan (Oak Ridge National Lab), have discovered a new phase of matter known as a topological Weyl semimetal.  This novel phase hosts excitations known as Weyl fermions, first predicted in high energy physics in 1929, but only recently experimentally discovered in quantum materials.  Using theoretical modeling and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, the team identified the first type-II Weyl semimetal phase in the layered transition metal compound MoTe₂.  Type-II Weyl semimetals possess electron and hole pockets which touch at topologically protected points in momentum space and form unusual surface states resulting in unique transport properties.  Additionally, these Weyl excitations are robust against external perturbations, providing a resilient platform for electronic applications.

This work has been published in the July 11, 2016 issue of  Nature Materials  MoTe2 type 2 Weyl NMAT2016.pdf.

Congratulations to all involved!