In-plane selective excitation of arbitrary vibration modes using thickness-shear (d15) piezoelectric transducers

Experimental modal analysis (EMA) is of great importance for the dynamic characterization of structures. Existing methods typically employ out-of-plane forces for excitation and measure the acceleration or strain for modal analysis. However, these methods encountered difficulties in some cases. In this work, we proposed an in-plane excitation method based on thickness-shear (d15) piezoelectric transducers. Through the combination of distributed d15 PZT strips, arbitrary vibration modes can be selectively excited in a wide frequency range. Both simulations and experiments were conducted and the results validated the proposed method. Specifically, bending, torsional, and longitudinal vibration modes of a rectangular bar were selectively excited. Torsional modes of a shaft were excited without the aid of brackets and bending modes of a circular plate were excited with actuators placed at nodal lines. Furthermore, the electromechanical impedance of the PZT-structure system was measured from which the natural frequency and quality factor were directly extracted. Due to its simplicity and flexibility, the proposed vibration excitation method is expected to be widely used in near future.

Glide symmetry protected higher-order topological insulators from semimetals with butterfly-like nodal lines

Most topological insulators (TIs) discovered today in spinful systems can be transformed from topological semimetals (TSMs) with vanishing bulk gap via introducing the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), which manifests the intrinsic links between the gapped topological insulator phases and the gapless TSMs. Recently, we have discovered a family of TSMs in time-reversal invariant spinless systems, which host butterfly-like nodal-lines (NLs) consisting of a pair of identical concentric intersecting coplanar ellipses (CICE). In this Communication, we unveil the intrinsic link between this exotic class of nodal-line semimetals (NLSMs) and a $${{\mathbb{Z}}}_{4}$$ Z 4 = 2 topological crystalline insulator (TCI), by including substantial SOC. We demonstrate that in three space groups (i.e., Pbam (No.55), P4/mbm (No.127), and P42/mbc (No.135)), the TCI supports a fourfold Dirac fermion on the (001) surface protected by two glide symmetries, which originates from the intertwined drumhead surface states of the CICE NLs. The higher order topology is further demonstrated by the emergence of one-dimensional helical hinge states, indicating the discovery of a higher order topological insulator protected by a glide symmetry.

A Review of Topological Semimetal Phases in Photonic Artificial Microstructures

In the past few years, the concept of topological matter has inspired considerable research in broad areas of physics. In particular, photonic artificial microstructures like photonic crystals and metamaterials provide a unique platform to investigate topologically non-trivial physics in spin-1 electromagnetic fields. Three-dimensional (3D) topological semimetal band structures, which carry non-trivial topological charges, are fundamental to 3D topological physics. Here, we review recent progress in understanding 3D photonic topological semimetal phases and various approaches for realizing them, especially with photonic crystals or metamaterials. We review topological gapless band structures and topological surface states aroused from the non-trivial bulk topology. Weyl points, 3D Dirac points, nodal lines, and nodal surfaces of different types are discussed. We also demonstrate their application in coupling spin-polarized electromagnetic waves, anomalous reflection, vortex beams generation, bulk transport, and non-Hermitian effects.

Obvious Surface States Connecting to the Projected Triple Points in NaCl’s Phonon Dispersion

With the development of computer technology and theoretical chemistry, the speed and accuracy of first-principles calculations have significantly improved. Using first-principles calculations to predict new topological materials is a hot research topic in theoretical and computational chemistry. In this work, we focus on a well-known material, sodium chloride (NaCl), and propose that the triple point (TP), quadratic contact triple point (QCTP), linear and quadratic nodal lines can be found in the phonon dispersion of NaCl with Fm3¯ m type structure. More importantly, we propose that the clear surface states connected to the projected TP and QCTP are visible on the (001) surface. It is hoped that further experimental investigation and verification for these properties as mentioned above.

Computational Simulation of the Electronic State Transition in the Ternary Hexagonal Compound BaAgBi

Topological properties in metals or semimetals have sparked tremendous scientific interest in quantum chemistry because of their exotic surface state behavior. The current research focus is still on discovering ideal topological metal material candidates. We propose a ternary compound with a hexagonal crystal structure, BaAgBi, which was discovered to exhibit two Weyl nodal ring states around the Fermi energy level without the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) effect using theoretical calculations. When the SOC effect is considered, the topological phases transform into two Dirac nodal line states, and their locations also shift from the Weyl nodal rings. The surface states of both the Weyl nodal ring and Dirac nodal lines were calculated on the (001) surface projection using a tight-binding Hamiltonian, and clear drumhead states were observed, with large spatial distribution areas and wide energy variation ranges. These topological features in BaAgBi can be very beneficial for experimental detection, inspiring further experimental investigation.

Thermodynamics and transport of holographic nodal line semimetals

We study various thermodynamic and transport properties of a holographic model of a nodal line semimetal (NLSM) at finite temperature, including the quantum phase transition to a topologically trivial phase, with Dirac semimetal-like conductivity. At zero temperature, composite fermion spectral functions obtained from holography are known to exhibit multiple Fermi surfaces. Similarly, for the holographic NLSM we observe multiple nodal lines instead of just one. We show, however, that as the temperature is raised these nodal lines broaden and disappear into the continuum one by one, so there is a finite range of temperatures for which there is only a single nodal line visible in the spectrum. We compute several transport coefficients in the holographic NLSM as a function of temperature, namely the charge and thermal conductivities, and the shear viscosities. By adding a new non-linear coupling to the model we are able to control the low frequency limit of the electrical conductivity in the direction orthogonal to the plane of the nodal line, allowing us to better match the conductivity of real NLSMs. The boundary quantum field theory is anisotropic and therefore has explicitly broken Lorentz invariance, which leads to a stress tensor that is not symmetric. This has important consequences for the energy and momentum transport: the thermal conductivity at vanishing charge density is not simply fixed by a Ward identity, and there are a much larger number of independent shear viscosities than in a Lorentz-invariant system.

Prediction of unconventional magnetism in doped FeSb2

It is commonly believed that the energy bands of typical collinear antiferromagnets (AFs), which have zero net magnetization, are Kramers spin-degenerate. Kramers nondegeneracy is usually associated with a global time-reversal symmetry breaking (e.g., via ferromagnetism) or with a combination of spin–orbit interaction and broken spatial inversion symmetry. Recently, another type of spin splitting was demonstrated to emerge in some collinear magnets that are fully spin compensated by symmetry, nonrelativistic, and not even necessarily noncentrosymmetric. These materials feature nonzero spin density staggered in real space as seen in traditional AFs but also spin splitting in momentum space, generally seen only in ferromagnets. This results in a combination of materials characteristics typical of both ferromagnets and AFs. Here, we discuss this recently discovered class with application to a well-known semiconductor, FeSb2, and predict that with certain alloying, it becomes magnetic and metallic and features the aforementioned magnetic dualism. The calculated energy bands split antisymmetrically with respect to spin-degenerate nodal surfaces rather than nodal points, as in the case of spin–orbit splitting. The combination of a large (0.2-eV) spin splitting, compensated net magnetization with metallic ground state, and a specific magnetic easy axis generates a large anomalous Hall conductivity (∼150 S/cm) and a sizable magnetooptical Kerr effect, all deemed to be hallmarks of nonzero net magnetization. We identify a large contribution to the anomalous response originating from the spin–orbit interaction gapped anti-Kramers nodal surfaces, a mechanism distinct from the nodal lines and Weyl points in ferromagnets.