An ab-initio study on structural, elastic, electronic, bonding, thermal, and optical properties of topological Weyl semimetal TaX (X\u2009=\u2009P, As)

M I Naher,S H Naqib

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-85074-z

Abstract

In recent days, study of topological Weyl semimetals have become an active branch of physics and materials science because they led to realization of the Weyl fermions and exhibited protected Fermi arc surface states. Therefore, topological Weyl semimetals TaX (X = P, As) are important electronic systems to investigate both from the point of view of fundamental physics and potential applications. In this work, we have studied the structural, elastic, mechanical, electronic, bonding, acoustic, thermal and optical properties of TaX (X = P, As) in detail via first-principles method using the density functional theory. A comprehensive study of elastic constants and moduli shows that both TaP and TaAs possesses low to medium level of elastic anisotropy (depending on the measure), reasonably good machinability, mixed bonding characteristics with ionic and covalent contributions, brittle nature and relatively high Vickers hardness with a low Debye temperature and melting temperature. The minimum thermal conductivities and anisotropies of TaX (X = P, As) are calculated. Bond population analysis supports the bonding nature as predicted by the elastic parameters. The bulk electronic band structure calculations reveal clear semi-metallic features with quasi-linear energy dispersions in certain sections of the Brillouin zone near the Fermi level. A pseudogap in the electronic energy density of states at the Fermi level separating the bonding and the antibonding states indicates significant electronic stability of tetragonal TaX (X = P, As).The reflectivity spectra show almost non-selective behavior over a wide range of photon energy encompassing visible to mid-ultraviolet regions. High reflectivity over wide spectral range makes TaX suitable as reflecting coating. TaX (X = P, As) are very efficient absorber of ultraviolet radiation. Both the compounds are moderately optically anisotropic owing to the anisotropic nature of the electronic band structure. The refractive indices are very high in the infrared to visible range. All the energy dependent optical parameters show metallic features and are in complete accord with the underlying bulk electronic density of states calculations.

Highlights

Topological quantum materials, such as topological insulators[1,2], semimetals (Dirac or Weyl)3–7, metals[8,9], and superconductors[10,11] have recently become a subject of great interest in basic science and technology, both theoretically and experimentally
The magnitudes of the various elastic constants and moduli indicate that the mechanical failure mode of TaP and TaAs will be controlled by the shear deformation
The charge density distribution and bond population analyses indicate that both covalent and ionic bondings are present in TaP and TaAs

Summary

Introduction

Topological quantum materials, such as topological insulators[1,2], semimetals (Dirac or Weyl)3–7, metals[8,9], and superconductors[10,11] have recently become a subject of great interest in basic science and technology, both theoretically and experimentally. The surface Fermi-arcs (open Fermi surfaces),chiral anomaly, drum-head surface states, gapless in the bulk and a pair of Weyl points (band crossing points) existing with opposite parity All these exotic electronic features lead to many intriguing properties such as extremely large (sometimes negative) magneto-resistance, chiral magnetic effects, high carrier mobility, light effective mass, nontrivial Berry phase, quantum anomalous Hall effect, and novel quantum oscillations[18,19,20,21,22]. A thorough understanding of the elastic, mechanical, thermal, bonding and optical response of these compounds is necessary to unravel the potential of the titled WSMs for possible applications This constitutes the primary motivation of the present study. The important features of this study are summarized and concluded in “Discussion and conclusions” section

Methods

Results

Conclusion