Observation of unusual topological surface states in half-Heusler compounds LnPtBi (Ln=Lu, Y).
Topological quantum materials represent a new class of matter with both exotic physical phenomena and novel application potentials. Many Heusler compounds, which exhibit rich emergent properties such as unusual magnetism, superconductivity and heavy fermion behaviour, have been predicted to host non-trivial topological electronic structures. The coexistence of topological order and other unusual properties makes Heusler materials ideal platform to search for new topological quantum phases (such as quantum anomalous Hall insulator and topological superconductor). By carrying out angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and ab initio calculations on rare-earth half-Heusler compounds LnPtBi (Ln=Lu, Y), we directly observe the unusual topological surface states on these materials, establishing them as first members with non-trivial topological electronic structure in this class of materials. Moreover, as LnPtBi compounds are non-centrosymmetric superconductors, our discovery further highlights them as promising candidates of topological superconductors.
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University and CAS-Shanghai Science Research Center, Shanghai 201203, China.
Z K
ZK
Liu
State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics and Collaborative Innovation Center for Quantum Matter, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
L X
LX
Yang
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
S-C
SC
Wu
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
C
C
Shekhar
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University and CAS-Shanghai Science Research Center, Shanghai 201203, China.|Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
J
J
Jiang
State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, SIMIT, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China.
H F
HF
Yang
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Y
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1204-8717
Y
Zhang
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
S-K
SK
Mo
Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Z
Z
Hussain
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University and CAS-Shanghai Science Research Center, Shanghai 201203, China.|Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
B
B
Yan
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids, D-01187 Dresden, Germany.
C
C
Felser
School of Physical Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University and CAS-Shanghai Science Research Center, Shanghai 201203, China.|State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics and Collaborative Innovation Center for Quantum Matter, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.|Physics Department, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 3PU, UK.
Y L
YL
Chen
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