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  • Perspective
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Cycling Fermi arc electrons with Weyl orbits

Nature Reviews Physics volume 3, pages 660–670 (2021)Cite this article

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An Author Correction to this article was published on 07 September 2021

Abstract

The Weyl orbit refers to a new type of cyclotron orbit recently proposed in Weyl semimetals. This is a surface–bulk hybrid orbit that can be modulated by thickness and external fields. Recently, the Weyl orbit has been used to realize the 3D quantum Hall effect, and subsequent rapid progress in experiments promise a new understanding of higher-dimension quantum Hall physics. In this Perspective, we review the theoretical background and the current experimental status of the Weyl orbit, present the extension of Weyl orbit physics in realizing the 3D quantum Hall effect and further discuss the opportunities in tuning topological quantum states and realizing device applications provided by the concept of the Weyl orbit.

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Fig. 1: Schematics of Fermi arcs and Weyl orbits.
Fig. 2: Quantum transport of the Weyl orbit in Dirac and Weyl semimetals.
Fig. 3: Quantum Hall effect of the Weyl orbit in Cd3As2.
Fig. 4: Emergent quantum phenomena and device applications based on the Weyl orbit.

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Acknowledgements

F.X. was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 11934005 and 11874116), National Key Research and Development Program of China (grant nos. 2017YFA0303302 and 2018YFA0305601), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai (grant no. 19511120500), the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project (grant no. 2019SHZDZX01) and the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (grant no. 20XD1400200). C.Z. was sponsored by Shanghai Sailing Program (grant no. 20YF1402300), Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (grant no. 20ZR1407500) and the start-up grant at Fudan University. Y.Z. was supported by the start-up grant at Peking University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics and Department of Physics, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cheng Zhang & Faxian Xiu

  2. Institute for Nanoelectronic Devices and Quantum Computing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cheng Zhang & Faxian Xiu

  3. Zhangjiang Fudan International Innovation Center, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Cheng Zhang & Faxian Xiu

  4. International Center for Quantum Materials, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Yi Zhang & X. C. Xie

  5. Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, South University of Science and Technology of China, Shenzhen, China

    Hai-Zhou Lu

  6. Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Quantum Science and Engineering, Shenzhen, China

    Hai-Zhou Lu

  7. Mat-X Institute of Applied Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

    Faxian Xiu

  8. Shanghai Research Center for Quantum Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Faxian Xiu

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  1. Cheng Zhang
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C.Z. and F.X. drafted the manuscript and all the authors contributed to finalizing the manuscript.

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Zhang, C., Zhang, Y., Lu, HZ. et al. Cycling Fermi arc electrons with Weyl orbits. Nat Rev Phys 3, 660–670 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-021-00344-z

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