Di Pietro, P., Mitrano, M., Caramazza, S., Capitani, F., Lupi, S., Postorino, P., Ripanti, F., Joseph, B., Ehlen, N., Grüneis, A., Sanna, A., Profeta, G., Dore, P., Perucchi, A.
Emergent Dirac carriers across a pressure-induced Lifshitz transition in black phosphorus
Physical Review B 98, (16),pp 165111/1-7 (2018)
The phase diagram of correlated systems like cuprate or pnictide high-temperature superconductors is likely defined by a topological change of the Fermi surface under continuous variation of an external parameter, the so-called Lifshitz transition. However, a number of low-temperature instabilities and the interplay of multiple energy scales complicate the study of this phenomenon. Here we identify the optical signatures of a pressure-induced Lifshitz transition in a clean elemental system, black phosphorus. By applying external pressures above 1.5 GPa, we observe a change in the pressure-dependent Drude plasma frequency due to the appearance of massless Dirac fermions. At higher pressures, optical signatures of two structural phase transitions are also identified. Our
findings suggest that a key fingerprint of the Lifshitz transition, in the absence of structural transitions, is a Drude plasma frequency discontinuity due to a change in the Fermi surface topology.
TH-2018-34