Discovery of topological nodal-line fermionic phase in a magnetic material GdSbTe

• Topological Dirac semimetals with accidental band touching between conduction and valence bands protected by time reversal and inversion symmetry are at the frontier of modern condensed matter research. A majority of discovered topological semimetals are nonmagnetic and conserve time reversal symmetry. Here we report the experimental discovery of an antiferromagnetic topological nodal-line semimetallic state in GdSbTe using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our systematic study reveals the detailed electronic structure of the paramagnetic state of antiferromagnetic GdSbTe. We observe the presence of multiple Fermi surface pockets including a diamond-shape, and small circular pockets around the zone center and high symmetry X points of the Brillouin zone (BZ), respectively. Furthermore, we observe the presence of a Dirac-like state at the X point of the BZ and the effect of magnetism along the nodal-line direction. Interestingly, our experimental data show a robust  Dirac-like state both below and above the magnetic transition temperature (TN  = 13 K). Having a relatively high transition temperature, GdSbTe provides an archetypical platform to study the interaction between magnetism and topological states of matter.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Den kondenserade materiens fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Condensed Matter Physics (hsv//eng)

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art (subject category)