Strain-Induced Orbital Magnetization in a Weyl Semimetal

Abstract

Strains in a crystal lattice give rise to gauge pseudofields. In this work, the magnetization of a distorted Weyl semimetal induced by the pseudomagnetic field is studied. It is shown that such magnetization is nonzero because an additional electric field (gradient of the deformation potential) is generated simultaneously with the pseudomagnetic field. It is also shown that the usual applied electric field controls the magnetization, providing an opportunity of decreasing it to zero. The system under study can also exhibit the coexistence of two types of Weyl fermions, types I and II.