Generation of strain-induced pseudo-magnetic field in a doped type-II Weyl semimetal*

As per the theory, it is in principle possible to realize a pseudo-magnetic field in strained Weyl semimetals. The basic idea is that strain alters the hopping parameter which may manifest itself as a gauge potential, which in turn may lead to a quantity analogous to the magnetic field. This pseudo-magnetic field may help the formation of quantized Landau levels and thus may become observable in Weyl semimetals. We will show the emergence of a pseudo-magnetic field in a doped and intrinsically strained type-II Weyl semimetal by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) down to 300 mK. In these experiments, clear Landau level oscillations are observed in the absence of an externally applied magnetic field. The system also has a known superconducting phase at very low temperature, which remains unaffected by the pseudo-magnetic field.