Observation of multiple types of topological fermions in PdBiSe

Abstract

© 2019 American Physical Society. Topological semimetals with different types of band crossings provide a rich platform to realize novel fermionic excitations, known as topological fermions. In particular, some fermionic excitations can be direct analogs of elementary particles in quantum field theory when both obey the same laws of physics in the low-energy limit. Examples include Dirac and Weyl fermions, whose solid-state realizations have provided new insights into long-sought phenomena in high-energy physics. Recently, theorists predicted new types of fermionic excitations in condensed-matter systems without any high-energy counterpart, and their existence is protected by crystalline symmetries. By studying the topology of the electronic structure in PdBiSe using density functional theory calculations and bulk-sensitive soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we demonstrate a coexistence of four different types of topological fermions: Weyl, Rarita-Schwinger-Weyl, double class-II three-component, and charge-2 fourfold fermions. Our discovery provides a remarkable platform to realize multiple fermions in a single solid, charting the way forward to studies of their potentially exotic properties as well as their interplay.