Recently, the theoretical findings on quantum transport in 3D topological semimetals were published on Physical Review Letters (PRL), one of the most prestigious journals in the field of Physics. This research was conducted by the team led by SUSTech Associate Professor Lu Haizhou. The title of the published paper is Anomalous Phase Shift of Quantum Oscillations in 3D Topological Semimetals, with Assistant Professor Wang Chunming as the lead author, Associate Professor Lu Haizhou as the corresponding author, and Professor Shen Shunqing from the University of Hong Kong as the joint author. It is the first time that SUSTech published original research results on PRL as the lead unit and corresponding unit.

Under a high-intensity magnetic field, the electron gas in metals will be Landau-quantized, resulting in the quantum oscillations of resistance (Fig. 1). Quantum oscillation is one of the most important means to analyze the energy band structure of materials. The topological semimetal, a new state of matter, was discovered only recently. Topological semimetals have symmetry-protected topological magnetic monopoles and derivative novel topology (Fig. 2). By analyzing the quantum oscillation, especially the phase shift of topological semimetals, researchers revealed the energy band and topological structure of topological semimetals. However, there occurred anomalous phase shift in a series of experiments recently. But due to the lack of theoretical support, there are no recognized methods to analyze the data of quantum oscillations in 3D topological semimetals produced in different experiments. This paper puts forward a new theoretical model. Through systematic calculation, this paper gives a new explanation of the occurrence of anomalous phase shift, and clarifies the specifications for analyzing data. The paper is expected to promote further researches on anomalous phase shift. The reviewer thought highly of the research, and noted in the review paper that: “Determining the Landau indices of 3D materials is a highly nontrivial task, and the authors are one of the few groups in the world having sufficient theoretical expertise to perform this calculation correctly.”

In American Physical Society, PRL is the journal with the highest exposure rate. It publishes short reports of significant and notable results in the full arc of fundamental and interdisciplinary physics research. Its criteria for accepting papers can be summarized as follows: open a new research orientation, solve a critical outstanding problem, present a new technique or methodology, and be of interest to the broad audience of PRL. On average, the papers on PRL are cited once every two minutes. Previously, PRL published 3,500 papers every year. But in recent years, in order to improve the quality of the journal, PRL decided to publish only 2,700 papers every year, which has consolidated its position as a top-class journal in Physics.

The research of Lu’s team was supported by the key research program of Ministry of Science and Technology, Natural Science Foundation of China, the scientific research fund of SUSTech and the public computer cluster of  SUSTech Department of Physics.

http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.077201