Till Örebro universitet

We show that a series of transition metals with strained body-centered cubic lattice - W, Ta, Nb, and Mo - hosts surface states that are topologically protected by mirror symmetry and, thus, exhibits nonzero topological invariants. These findings extend the class of topologically nontrivial systems by topological crystalline transition metals. The investigation is based on calculations of the electronic structures and of topological invariants. The signatures of a Dirac-type surface state in W(110), e.g., the linear dispersion and the spin texture, are verified. To further support our prediction, we investigate Ta(110) both theoretically and experimentally by spin-resolved inverse photoemission: unoccupied topologically nontrivial surface states are observed.