Optical conductivity of triple point fermions

Abstract

As a low-energy effective theory on non-symmorphic lattices, we consider a generic triple point fermion Hamiltonian, which is parameterized by an angular parameter λ. We find strong λ dependence in both Drude and interband optical absorption of these systems. The deviation of the T 2 coefficient of the Drude weight from Dirac/Weyl fermions can be used as a quick way to optically distinguish the triple point degeneracies from the Dirac/Weyl degeneracies. At the particular λ = π/6 point, we find that the ‘helicity’ reversal optical transition matrix element is identically zero. Nevertheless, deviating from this point, the helicity reversal emerges as an absorption channel.