Unconventional Landau level transitions in Weyl semimetal NbP

Abstract

Weyl semimetals were experimentally discovered as a new quantum phase of matter that exhibits topologically protected states characterized by separated Weyl points. Similar to other topological materials, the research of Landau level transitions can provide abundant information on Fermi surfaces. Extensive experimental efforts on low-temperature transport and optical properties have been dedicated to investigating the nontrivial topology structure. However, there are some theoretically predicted unconventional Landau level transitions in Weyl semimetals that have not been observed experimentally. And, their contribution to the electromagnetic response of Weyl semimetal remains elusive. Here, we report the magneto-optical study of Landau quantization and selection rules in Weyl semimetal NbP under Voigt geometry. By changing the direction of the electric vector of the incoming light under Voigt and Faraday geometry, abundant Landau level transition modes which contain $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}=0$, \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1, \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2 selection rules are obtained. The richness of the optical spectra, particularly the ones from the Voigt geometry, allows us to determine the location of Fermi energy and its evolution with magnetic fields. We further extract the transitions between Landau levels and Fermi energy and deduce the Landau index. Our results reveal the track of Fermi energy under varying magnetic fields based on the Landau level transitions under Voigt geometry and suggest that a combination of the magneto-optical spectra under Voigt and Faraday geometry can effectively determine the key properties of topological materials that are otherwise inaccessible.