Quasiparticle interference of surface states in the type-II Weyl semimetal WTe 2

Abstract

A topological Weyl semimetal (TWS) is a metal where low-energy excitations behave like Weyl fermions of high-energy physics. Recently, it was shown that, due to the lower symmetry of condensed-matter systems, they can realize two distinct types of Weyl fermions. The type-I Weyl fermion in a metal is formed by a linear crossing of two bands at a point in the crystalline momentum space - Brillouin zone. The second type of TWSs host type-II Weyl points appearing at the touching points of electron and hole pockets, which is a result of tilted linear dispersion. The type-II TWS was predicted to exist in several compounds, including WTe2. Several angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy studies of WTe2 were reported so far, having contradictory conclusions on the topological nature of observed Fermi arcs. In this paper, we report the results of spectroscopic imaging with a scanning tunneling microscope and first-principles calculations, establishing clear quasiparticle interference features of the surface states of WTe2. Our paper provides strong evidence for surface-state scattering. Although the surface Fermi arcs clearly are observed, it is still difficult to prove the existence of predicted type-II Weyl points in the bulk.