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Disorder-driven non-Anderson transition in a Weyl semimetal

Li, Cong ; Wang, Yang ; Zhang, Jianfeng ; Liu, Hongxiong ; Chen, Wanyu ; Liu, Guowei ; Deng, Hanbin ; Kim, Timur K. ; Polley, Craig LU and Thiagarajan, Balasubramanian LU , et al. (2025) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 122(41).
Abstract

For several decades, it was widely believed that a noninteracting disordered electronic system could only undergo an Anderson metal–insulator transition due to Anderson localization. However, numerous recent theoretical works have predicted the existence of a disorder-driven non-Anderson phase transition that differs from Anderson localization. The frustration lies in the fact that this non-Anderson disorder-driven transition has not yet been experimentally demonstrated in any system. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we present a case study of observing the non-Anderson disorder-driven transition by visualizing the electronic structure of the Weyl semimetal NdAlSi on surfaces with varying amounts of disorder. Our... (More)

For several decades, it was widely believed that a noninteracting disordered electronic system could only undergo an Anderson metal–insulator transition due to Anderson localization. However, numerous recent theoretical works have predicted the existence of a disorder-driven non-Anderson phase transition that differs from Anderson localization. The frustration lies in the fact that this non-Anderson disorder-driven transition has not yet been experimentally demonstrated in any system. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we present a case study of observing the non-Anderson disorder-driven transition by visualizing the electronic structure of the Weyl semimetal NdAlSi on surfaces with varying amounts of disorder. Our observations reveal that strong disorder can effectively suppress all surface states in the Weyl semimetal NdAlSi, including the topological surface Fermi arcs. This disappearance of surface Fermi arcs is associated with the vanishing of the topological invariant, indicating a quantum phase transition from a Weyl semimetal to a diffusive metal. These observations provide direct experimental evidence of the non-Anderson disorder-driven transition occurring in real quantum systems, a finding long anticipated by theoretical physicists.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ARPES, electronic structure, non-Anderson transition, Weyl semimetal
in
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
volume
122
issue
41
article number
e2508569122
publisher
National Academy of Sciences
external identifiers
  • pmid:41066113
  • scopus:105018262122
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.2508569122
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
493d949e-5997-4631-a96c-a55623b19150
date added to LUP
2026-01-13 13:45:41
date last changed
2026-01-14 03:00:07
@article{493d949e-5997-4631-a96c-a55623b19150,
  abstract     = {{<p>For several decades, it was widely believed that a noninteracting disordered electronic system could only undergo an Anderson metal–insulator transition due to Anderson localization. However, numerous recent theoretical works have predicted the existence of a disorder-driven non-Anderson phase transition that differs from Anderson localization. The frustration lies in the fact that this non-Anderson disorder-driven transition has not yet been experimentally demonstrated in any system. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we present a case study of observing the non-Anderson disorder-driven transition by visualizing the electronic structure of the Weyl semimetal NdAlSi on surfaces with varying amounts of disorder. Our observations reveal that strong disorder can effectively suppress all surface states in the Weyl semimetal NdAlSi, including the topological surface Fermi arcs. This disappearance of surface Fermi arcs is associated with the vanishing of the topological invariant, indicating a quantum phase transition from a Weyl semimetal to a diffusive metal. These observations provide direct experimental evidence of the non-Anderson disorder-driven transition occurring in real quantum systems, a finding long anticipated by theoretical physicists.</p>}},
  author       = {{Li, Cong and Wang, Yang and Zhang, Jianfeng and Liu, Hongxiong and Chen, Wanyu and Liu, Guowei and Deng, Hanbin and Kim, Timur K. and Polley, Craig and Thiagarajan, Balasubramanian and Yin, Jiaxin and Shi, Youguo and Xiang, Tao and Tjernberg, Oscar}},
  issn         = {{0027-8424}},
  keywords     = {{ARPES; electronic structure; non-Anderson transition; Weyl semimetal}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{41}},
  publisher    = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
  series       = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
  title        = {{Disorder-driven non-Anderson transition in a Weyl semimetal}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508569122}},
  doi          = {{10.1073/pnas.2508569122}},
  volume       = {{122}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}