Chiral multifold fermions are quasiparticles described by higher spin generalizations of the Weyl equation, and are realized as low energy excitations near symmetry protected band crossings in certain chiral crystals. In this work we calculate the linear optical conductivity of all chiral multifold fermions. We show that it is enhanced with respect to that of Weyl fermions with the same Fermi velocity, and features characteristic activation frequencies for each multifold fermion class, providing an experimental fingerprint to detect them. We calculate the conductivity for realistic chiral multifold semimetals by using lattice tight-binding Hamiltonians that match the effective models of multifold fermions at low energies, for space groups 199 and 198. The latter includes RhSi, for which we give quantitative predictions, and also CoSi and AlPt. Our predictions can be tested in absorption or penetration depth measurements, and are necessary to extract the recently proposed quantized photocurrents from experiments. arXiv:1902.07271v3 [cond-mat.mes-hall]

Chiral topological semimetals are materials that break both inversion and mirror symmetries. They host interesting phenomena such as the quantized circular photogalvanic effect (CPGE) and the chiral magnetic effect. In this work, we report a comprehensive theoretical and experimental analysis of the linear and nonlinear optical responses of the chiral topological semimetal RhSi, which is known to host multifold fermions. We show that the characteristic features of the optical conductivity, which display two distinct quasi-linear regimes above and below 0.4 eV, can be linked to excitations of different kinds of multifold fermions. The characteristic features of the CPGE, which displays a sign change at 0.4 eV and a large non-quantized response peak of around 160 μA/V2 at 0.7 eV, are explained by assuming that the chemical potential crosses a flat hole band at the Brillouin zone center. Our theory predicts that, in order to observe a quantized CPGE in RhSi, it is necessary to increase the chemical potential as well as the quasiparticle lifetime. More broadly, our methodology, especially the development of the broadband terahertz emission spectroscopy, could be widely applied to study photogalvanic effects in noncentrosymmetric materials and in topological insulators in a contact-less way and accelerate the technological development of efficient infrared detectors based on topological semimetals.

We report the optical conductivity in high-quality crystals of the chiral topological semimetal CoSi, which hosts exotic quasiparticles known as multifold fermions. We find that the optical response is separated into several distinct regions as a function of frequency, each dominated by different types of quasiparticles. The low-frequency intraband response is captured by a narrow Drude peak from a high-mobility electron pocket of double Weyl quasiparticles, and the temperature dependence of the spectral weight is consistent with its Fermi velocity. By subtracting the low-frequency sharp Drude and phonon peaks at low temperatures, we reveal two intermediate quasilinear interband contributions separated by a kink at 0.2 eV. Using Wannier tight-binding models based on first-principle calculations, we link the optical conductivity above and below 0.2 eV to interband transitions near the double Weyl fermion and a threefold fermion, respectively. We analyze and determine the chemical potential relative to the energy of the threefold fermion, revealing the importance of transitions between a linearly dispersing band and a flat band. More strikingly, below 0.1 eV our data are best explained if spin-orbit coupling is included, suggesting that at these energies, the optical response is governed by transitions between a previously unobserved fourfold spin-3/2 node and a Weyl node. Our comprehensive combined experimental and theoretical study provides a way to resolve different types of multifold fermions in CoSi at different energy. More broadly, our results provide the necessary basis to interpret the burgeoning set of optical and transport experiments in chiral topological semimetals.

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In this work we study the electronic structure of Ag AuSe 3 2 and Ag AuTe 3 2 , two chiral insulators whose gap can be tuned through small changes in the lattice parameter by applying hydrostatic pressure or choosing different growth protocols. Based on first principles calculations we compute their band structure for different values of the lattice parameters and show that while Ag AuSe 3 2 retains its direct narrow gap at the Γ point, Ag AuTe 3 2 can turn into a metal. Focusing on Ag AuSe 3 2 we derive a low energy model around Γ using group theory, which we use to calculate the optical conductivity for different values of the lattice constant. We discuss our results in the context of detection of light dark matter particles, which have masses of the order of a keV, and conclude that Ag AuSe 3 2 satisfies three important requirements for a suitable detector: small Fermi velocities, meV band gap, and low photon screening. Our work motivates the growth of high-quality and large samples of Ag AuSe 3 2 to be used as target materials in dark matter detectors.

The understanding of the mean free path (MFP) distribution of the energy carriers in materials (e.g., electrons, phonons, magnons, etc.) provides a key physical insight into their transport properties. In this context, MFP spectroscopy has become an important tool to describe the contribution of carriers with different MFP to the total transport phenomenon. In this work, we revise the MFP reconstruction technique and present a study on the impact of the regularization parameter on the MFP distribution of the energy carriers. By using the L-curve criterion, we calculate the optimal mathematical value of the regularization parameter. The effect of the change from the optimal value in the MFP distribution is analyzed in three case studies of heat transport by phonons. These results demonstrate that the choice of the regularization parameter has a large impact on the physical information obtained from the reconstructed accumulation function, and thus cannot be chosen arbitrarily. The approach can be applied to various transport phenomena at the nanoscale involving carriers of different physical nature and behavior.