Tomographic Imaging of Orbital Vortex Lines in Three-Dimensional Momentum Space

Figgemeier, T.; Eck, P.; Geldiyev, B.; Di Sante, D.; Sangiovanni, G.; Reinert, F.; Siegrist, T.; Crippa, L.; Rossnagel, K.; Hoesch, M.; Schusser, J.; Ünzelmann, M.; Bentmann, H.; Buck, J.; Moessner, R.; Neu, J. N.; Kalläne, M.; Kagerer, P.; Lim, L. -K.

Preprint

PUBDB-2025-00813

Tomographic Imaging of Orbital Vortex Lines in Three-Dimensional Momentum Space

Figgemeier, T. (Corresponding author)Extern* ; Ünzelmann, M. ; Eck, P. ; Schusser, J. ; Crippa, L. ; Neu, J. N. ; Geldiyev, B. ; Kagerer, P. ; Buck, J. ; Kalläne, M. ; Hoesch, M.DESY* ; Rossnagel, K.DESY* ; Siegrist, T. ; Lim, L. -. ; Moessner, R. ; Sangiovanni, G. ; Di Sante, D. ; Reinert, F. ; Bentmann, H.

2024

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Report No.: arXiv:2402.10031

Abstract: We report the experimental discovery of orbital vortex lines in the three-dimensional (3D) band structure of a topological semimetal. Combining linear and circular dichroism in soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission (SX-ARPES) with first-principles theory, we image the winding of atomic orbital angular momentum, thereby revealing - and determining the location of - lines of vorticity in full 3D momentum space. Our observation of momentum-space vortex lines with quantized winding number establishes an analogue to real-space quantum vortices, for instance, in type-II superconductors and certain non-collinear magnets. These results establish multimodal dichroism in SX-ARPES as an approach to trace 3D orbital textures. Our present findings particularly constitute the first imaging of non-trivial quantum-phase winding at line nodes and may pave the way to new orbitronic phenomena in quantum materials

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