Raman signatures of inversion symmetry breaking and structural phase transition in type-II Weyl semimetal MoTe2
Abstract
Transition metal dichalcogenide MoTe2 is an important candidate for realizing the newly predicted type-IIWeyl fermions, for which the breaking of the inversion symmetry is a prerequisite. Here we present direct spectroscopic evidence for the inversion symmetry breaking in the low temperature phase of MoTe2 by systematic Raman experiments and first principles calculations. We identify five lattice vibrational modes which are Raman active only in noncentrosymmetric structure at low temperature. A hysteresis is also observed in the peak intensity of inversion symmetry activated Raman modes, confirming a temperature induced structural phase transition with a concomitant change in the inversion symmetry. Our results provide definitive evidence for the low temperature noncentrosymmetric Td phase from vibrational spectroscopy, and suggest MoTe2 as an ideal candidate for investigating the temperature induced topological phase transition.