Dissertation
On transport properties of Weyl semimetals
Promotor: C. W. J. Beenakker, Yu. V. Nazarov, Co-promotor: J. Tworzydlo
- Author
- Paul Baireuther
- Date
- 26 April 2017
- Links
- Thesis in Leiden Repository
In this thesis we study transport properties of Weyl semimetals. We begin with a general introduction in the first chapter. In chapter two, we study the related antiferromagnetic topological insulators. At the phase transition between such a topological insulator and a normal insulator Weyl cones appear. We study the transport properties of these Weyl cones, and find an unexpected value for the Fano factor. In chapter three, we study the chiral magnetic effect, which is one of the most famous transport signatures of a Weyl semimetal. Usually a strong magnetic field is needed for this effect. However, we show that there also exists a variant in a weak magnetic field. In the fourth chapter, we bring a Weyl semimetal with broken time-reversal symmetry in contact with a conventional superconductor. The superconductor leaves the bulk of the Weyl semimetal invariant, but splits the Fermi arcs into nearly charge neutral Majorana modes. In the last chapter, we study Fermi arcs and transport properties of a very different system: the pseudo-gap phase of high temperature cuprate superconductors.