Experimental discovery of a topological Weyl semimetal state in TaP

Understand

Weyl semimetals are expected to open up new horizons in physics and materials science because they provide the first realization of Weyl fermions and exhibit protected Fermi arc surface states.

• However, they had been found to be extremely rare in nature.
• Recently, a family of compounds, consisting of TaAs, TaP, NbAs and NbP was predicted as Weyl semimetal candidates.
• Here, we experimentally realize a Weyl semimetal state in TaP.