Physicists have discovered a novel topological semimetal, the Weyl semimetal, whose surface features a nonclosed Fermi surface while the low energy quasiparticles in the bulk emerge as Weyl fermions. Here they share a brief review of the development and present perspectives on the next step forward.Weyl semimetals are semimetals or metals whose quasiparticle excitation is the Weyl fermion, a particle that played a crucial role in quantum field theory but has not been observed as a fundamental particle in vacuum 1-24 . Weyl fermions have definite chiralities, either left-handed or right handed. In a Weyl semimetal, the chirality can be understood as a topologically protected chiral charge. Weyl nodes of opposite chirality are separated in momentum space and are connected only through the crystal boundary by an exotic nonclosed surface state, the Fermi arcs. Remarkably, Weyl fermions are robust while carrying currents, giving rise to exceptionally high mobilities. Their spins are locked to their momentum directions due to their character of momentum space magnetic monopole configuration.The presence of parallel electrical and magnetic fields can break the apparent conservation of the chiral charge due to the chiral anomaly, making a Weyl metal, unlike ordinary nonmagnetic metals, more conductive with an increasing magnetic field. These new topological phenomena beyond topological insulators make new physics accessible and suggest potential applications, despite the early stage of the research .In this Commentary, we will review key experimental progress and present an outlook for future directions of the field. Through this article, we hope to expound our perspectives on the key results and the experimental approaches currently used to access the novel physics as well as their limitations. Moreover, while most of the current experiments are still focusing on the discovery of new Weyl materials and demonstration of novel Weyl physics such as the chiral anomaly, it is becoming clear that a crucial step forward is to develop schemes for achieving quantum controls of the novel Weyl physics by electrical and optical means. We discuss some theoretical proposals along these lines highlighting the experimental techniques and matching materials conditions that are necessary for realizing these research directions.
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MATERIAL SEARCHAlthough the theory of Weyl semimetal has been around for a long time in various forms 1-4 , its discovery had to wait until recent developments. This is because finding experimental realization requires appropriate materials simulation and characterizations. Historically, the first two material predictions, the pyrochlore iridates R 2 Ir 2 O 7 4 and the magnetically doped superlattice 6 , were both on time-reversal breaking (magnetic) materials.Perhaps influenced by the first works, for a long while, the community continued to focus on time-reversal breaking Weyl semimetals materials candidates 7,10 . These candidates were extensively studied by many experimental groups. Unfortunately, these ef...