Abstract
The prediction of non-trivial topological electronic states in half-Heusler compounds makes these materials good candidates for discovering new physics and devices as half-Heusler phases harbour a variety of electronic ground states, including superconductivity, antiferromagnetism, and heavy-fermion behaviour. Here, we report a systematic studies of electronic properties of a superconducting half-Heusler compound YPtBi, in its normal state, investigated using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our data reveal the presence of a Dirac state at the Gamma point of the Brillouin zone at 500 meV below the Fermi level. We observe the presence of multiple Fermi surface pockets, including two concentric hexagonal and six half-oval shaped pockets at the Gamma and K points of the Brillouin zone, respectively. Furthermore, our measurements show Rashba-split bands and multiple surface states crossing the Fermi level, this is also supported by the first-principles calculations. Our findings of a Dirac state in YPtBi contribute to the establishing of half-Heusler compounds as a potential platform for novel topological phases.
Highlights
The prediction of non-trivial topological electronic states in half-Heusler compounds makes these materials good candidates for discovering new physics and devices as half-Heusler phases harbour a variety of electronic ground states, including superconductivity, antiferromagnetism, and heavyfermion behaviour
Data reveal a Dirac state at the Ŵ point of the Brillouin zone (BZ) where the Dirac point lies at 500 meV below the Fermi level, which is further supported by our first-principles calculations
High symmetry points are marked in the figure, where Ŵ is the centre of the BZ, K is defined as the each corner of hexagon and M is the midpoint of two successive corner points
Summary
The prediction of non-trivial topological electronic states in half-Heusler compounds makes these materials good candidates for discovering new physics and devices as half-Heusler phases harbour a variety of electronic ground states, including superconductivity, antiferromagnetism, and heavyfermion behaviour. We observe the presence of multiple Fermi surface pockets, including two concentric hexagonal and six half-oval shaped pockets at the Ŵ and K points of the Brillouin zone, respectively. Topological quantum materials with non-trivial electronic band structures have gained intense research interest due to the possibility of exploiting exotic new physics such as Majorana fermions and the quantum spin Hall effect, as well as for their broad potential applications in quantum computing and s pintronics[1,2,3]. The assignment of topological surface state, as well as proposed origin of those states do not agree with each other In contrast to those two reports, another ARPES study of several half-Heusler phases LnPtBi (Ln = Lu, Dy, Gd)[28] has not found direct evidence of topologically non-trivial electronic states in these materials. Observation of topologically non-trivial electronic states together with the previously reported superconductivity in Y PtBi29–32, makes this material a possible platform for further investigations of coexistence of these two phenomena
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