Emergence of topological semimetals in gap closing in semiconductors without inversion symmetry.

A band gap for electronic states in crystals governs various properties of solids, such as transport, optical, and magnetic properties. Its estimation and control have been an important issue in solid-state physics. The band gap can be controlled externally by various parameters, such as pressure, atomic compositions, and external field.

Topological Dirac nodal lines and surface charges in fcc alkaline earth metals.

In nodal-line semimetals, the gaps close along loops in k space, which are not at high-symmetry points. Typical mechanisms for the emergence of nodal lines involve mirror symmetry and the π Berry phase. Here we show via ab initio calculations that fcc calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr) and ytterbium (Yb) have topological nodal lines with the π Berry phase near the Fermi level, when spin-orbit interaction is neglected.

In-Plane Electric Polarization of Bilayer Graphene Nanoribbons Induced by an Interlayer Bias Voltage.

We theoretically show that an interlayer bias voltage in the AB-stacked bilayer graphene nanoribbons with armchair edges induces an electric polarization along the ribbon. Both tight-binding and ab initio calculations consistently indicate that when the bias voltage is weak, the polarization shows opposite signs depending on the ribbon width modulo three. This nontrivial dependence is explained using a two-band effective model.

Weyl Node and Spin Texture in Trigonal Tellurium and Selenium.

We study Weyl nodes in materials with broken inversion symmetry. We find based on first-principles calculations that trigonal Te and Se have multiple Weyl nodes near the Fermi level. The conduction bands have a spin splitting similar to the Rashba splitting around the H points, but unlike the Rashba splitting the spin directions are radial, forming a hedgehog spin texture around the H points, with a nonzero Pontryagin index for each spin-split conduction band.