Bulk Dirac semimetals (DSMs) exhibit unconventional transport properties and phase transitions due to their peculiar low-energy band structure, yet the electronic interactions governing nonequilibrium phenomena in DSMs are not fully… Click to show full abstract
Bulk Dirac semimetals (DSMs) exhibit unconventional transport properties and phase transitions due to their peculiar low-energy band structure, yet the electronic interactions governing nonequilibrium phenomena in DSMs are not fully understood. Here we show that electron-phonon (e-ph) interactions in a prototypical bulk DSM, Na3Bi, are predominantly two-dimensional (2D). Our first-principles calculations reveal a 2D optical phonon with strong e-ph interactions associated with in-plane vibrations of Na atoms. We show that this 2D mode governs e-ph scattering and charge transport in Na3Bi and induces a dynamical phase transition to a Weyl semimetal. Our work advances the quantitative analysis of electron interactions in Na3Bi and reveals a dominant low-dimensional interaction in a bulk Dirac semimetal.
               
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