English

Identifying open-orbit topological surface states in dual topological semimetal TaSb$_2$

Materials Science 2026-02-17 v1

Abstract

TaSb2_2, a member of the transition metal dipnictide family of materials, hosts the very rare dual topological phase - weak topological insulating state and topological crystalline insulating state along different crystallographic orientations. So far, studies on the electronic structure of transition metal dipnictides have focused on their overall electronic structure and the bulk open-orbit Fermi surfaces. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, density functional theory calculations, and transport measurements, we distinguish the intertwined bulk and surface states on the weakly topological (201ˉ)(20\bar{1}) plane of TaSb2_2. We identify multiple electron- and hole-like bulk bands, yielding a near-perfect carrier compensation. Crucially, we observe open-orbit FSs parallel to Lˉ\bar{L}-Yˉ\bar{Y} direction that are entirely of surface origin. Circular-dichroism ARPES reveals kkk \rightarrow -k spectral reversal, indicating spin-momentum locking and the topological nature of these surface states. Consistent with this, magnetotransport measurements display weak antilocalization, establishing TaSb2_2 as a platform for spin-polarized topological transport on a weakly topological surface.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.14887,
  title  = {Identifying open-orbit topological surface states in dual topological semimetal TaSb$_2$},
  author = {Susmita Changdar and Heike Schlörb and Oleksandr Suvorov and Dimitry Efremov and Alexander Yaresko and Rui Lou and Alexander Fedorov and Bernd Büchner and Andy Thomas and Sergey Borisenko and Setti Thirupathaiah},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.14887},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 4 figures