Quantum oscillations from generic surface Fermi arcs and bulk chiral modes in Weyl semimetals

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 23741
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yi, Bulmash, Daniel, Hosur, Pavan, Potter, Andrew C., Vishwanath, Ashvin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.04.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/766/119/2792; 639/766/119/995; Energy; Humanities and Social Sciences; Magnetic fields; multidisciplinary; Orbits; Oscillations; Science
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep23741

We re-examine the question of quantum oscillations from surface Fermi arcs and chiral modes in Weyl semimetals. By introducing two tools - semiclassical phase-space quantization and a numerical implementation of a layered construction of Weyl semimetals - we discover several important generalizations to previous conclusions that were implicitly tailored to the special case of identical Fermi arcs on top and bottom surfaces. We show that the phase-space quantization picture fixes an ambiguity in the previously utilized energy-time quantization approach and correctly reproduces the numerically calculated quantum oscillations for generic Weyl semimetals with distinctly curved Fermi arcs on the two surfaces. Based on these methods, we identify a ‘magic’ magnetic-field angle where quantum oscillations become independent of sample thickness, with striking experimental implications. We also analyze the stability of these quantum oscillations to disorder and show that the high-field oscillations are expected to persist in samples whose thickness parametrically exceeds the quantum mean free path.