QMC Team Discovers New Topological Phase of Matter
A collaboration between QMC and the NIST Center for Neutron Research, lead by QMC graduate student I-Lin Liu, has just published results reporting the discovery of a new topological phase in the layered transition metal chalcogenide MoTe2, a promising host of electronic Weyl nodes and topological superconductivity. MoTe2 harbors both noncentrosymmetric Td and centrosymmetric T’ structural phases, both of which have been identified as topologically nontrivial. However, Liu and colleagues demonstrated via quantum oscillations and neutron scattering measurements, and first-principles calculations, how applied pressure drives MoTe2 between the Td and T’ phases, through an intermediate mixed-phase region. The mixed-phase region gives rise to a network of topological interface states that yield quantum oscillations that survive despite the strong structural disorder, opening the possibility of stabilizing multiple topological phases coexisting with superconductivity. This work is published in npj Quantum Materials.
