Dirac Line-nodes and Effect of Spin-orbit Coupling in Non-symmorphic Critical Semimetal MSiS (M=Hf, Zr)

Topological Dirac semimetals (TDSs) represent a new state of quantum matter recently discovered that offers a platform for realizing many exotic physical phenomena. A TDS is characterized by the linear touching of bulk bands at discrete points in the momentum space (i.e. 3D Dirac points), such as in Na₃Bi and Cd₃As₂. More recently, new types of Dirac semimetals with robust Dirac line-nodes have been proposed that extends the bulk linear touching from discrete points to 1D lines. In this work, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), we explored the electronic structure of the non-symmorphic crystals MSiS (M=Hf, Zr). Remarkably, by mapping out the band structure in the full 3D Brillouin Zone (BZ), we observed two sets of Dirac line-nodes in parallel with the k_z–axis and their dispersions. Interestingly, along directions other than the line-nodes in the 3D BZ, the bulk degeneracy is lifted by spin-orbit coupling (SOC) in both compounds with larger magnitude in HfSiS. Our work not only experimentally confirms a new Dirac line-node semimetal family protected by non-symmorphic symmetry, but also helps understanding and further exploring the exotic properties as well as practical applications of the MSiS family of compounds.