Signatures of van Hove singularities in the anisotropic in-plane optical conductivity of the topological semimetal Nb$_3$SiTe$_6$

Abstract

We present a temperature-dependent infrared spectroscopy study on the layered topological semimetal Nb$_3$SiTe$_6$ combined with density-functional theory (DFT) calculations of the electronic band structure and optical conductivity. Our results reveal an anisotropic behavior of the in-plane ($ac$-plane) optical conductivity, with three pronounced excitations located at around 0.15, 0.28, and 0.41~eV for the polarization of the incident radiation along the $c$ axis. These excitations are well reproduced in the theoretical spectra. Based on the \textit{ab initio} results, the excitations around 0.15 eV and 0.28 eV are interpreted as fingerprints of van Hove singularities in the electronic band structure and compared to the findings for other topological semimetals.