Published March 30, 2023 | Version Submitted
Discussion Paper Open

Dominant two-dimensional electron-phonon interactions in the bulk Dirac semimetal Na₃Bi

Abstract

Bulk Dirac semimetals (DSMs) exhibit unconventional transport properties and phase transitions due to their peculiar low-energy band structure. Yet the electronic interactions governing nonequilibrium phenomena in DSMs are not fully understood. Here we show that electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions in a prototypical bulk DSM, Na3Bi, are predominantly two-dimensional (2D). Our first-principles calculations discover a 2D optical phonon with strong e-ph interactions associated with in-plane vibrations of Na atoms. We show that this 2D mode governs e-ph scattering and charge transport in Na₃Bi, and induces a dynamical phase transition to a Weyl semimetal. Our work advances quantitative analysis of electron interactions in topological semimetals and reveals dominant low-dimensional interactions in bulk quantum materials.

Additional Information

D.D. and J.P. thank Ivan Maliyov for fruitful discussions. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DMR-1750613, which provided for method development, and Grant No. OAC-2209262, which provided for code development. M. B. was partially supported by the AFOSR and Clarkson Aerospace under Grant No. FA95502110460. This research used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

Attached Files

Submitted - 2303.17068.pdf

Files

2303.17068.pdf

Files (12.7 MB)

Name Size
md5:66b512b37d0d03ad6480e885d7a5328b
12.7 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
122035
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20230628-175652000.1

Funding

NSF
DMR-1750613
NSF
OAC-2209262
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)
FA95502110460
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-AC02-05CH11231

Dates

Created
2023-06-28
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-06-28
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Physics Department