Half-metallic ferromagneticWeyl fermions related to dynamic correlations in the zinc-blende compound VAs

Abstract

The realization of 100% polarized topological Weyl fermions in half-metallic ferromagnets is of particular importance for fundamental research and spintronic applications. Here, we theoretically investigate the electronic and topological properties of the zinc-blende compound VAs, which was deemed as a half-metallic ferromagnet related to dynamic correlations. Based on the combination of density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory, we uncover that the half-metallic ferromagnet VAs exhibits attractive Weyl semimetallic behaviors which are very close to the Fermi level in the DFT + U regime with effect U values ranging from 1.5 eV to 2.5 eV. Meanwhile, we also investigate the magnetization-dependent topological properties; the results show that the change of magnetization directions only slightly affects the positions of Weyl points, which is attributed to the weak spin–orbital coupling effects. The topological surface states of VAs projected on semi-infinite (001) and (111) surfaces are investigated. The Fermi arcs of all Weyl points are clearly visible on the projected Fermi surfaces. Our findings suggest that VAs is a fully spin-polarized Weyl semimetal with many-body correlated effects in the effective U values range from 1.5 eV to 2.5 eV.