Investigation of the unique electrical properties in topological semimetals
The recently discovered Weyl and Dirac semimetals are types of topological materials that are attracting considerable interest due to their wide range of potential applications, including high-energy physics, solid-state physics, electronics, spintronics, spin-calortronics, quantum computing and energy harvesting. The TOP WSF project, funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, involves the fabrication of thin films of selected topological semimetals in different magnetic ground states (non-magnetic, ferromagnetic, non-collinear antiferromagnetic). The project uses pulsed laser deposition to synthesise them and establishes a protocol to optimise growth conditions. The ultimate aim is to investigate how their topological electrical and thermoelectric transport properties evolve as a function of various parameters, including thin-film thickness, temperature, magnetic fields and strain.