Observation of Weyl Nodes in Robust Type-II Weyl Semimetal WP2

Distinct to type-I Weyl semimetals (WSMs) that host quasiparticles described by the Weyl equation, the energy dispersion of quasiparticles in type-II WSMs violates Lorentz invariance and the Weyl cones in the momentum space are tilted. Since it was proposed that type-II Weyl fermions could emerge from WTe2, MoTe2, WP2 and MoP2 families of materials, a large number of experiments have been dedicated to unveiling the possible manifestation of type-II WSMs, e.g., surface-state Fermi arcs. However, the interpretations of the experimental results are very controversial. Here, using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy supported by the first-principles calculations, we probe the tilted Weyl cone bands in the bulk electronic structure of WP2 directly, which are at the origin of Fermi arcs at the surfaces and transport properties related to the chiral anomaly in type-II WSMs. Our results ascertain that, due to the spin-orbit coupling, the Weyl nodes originate from the splitting of fourfold degenerate band-crossing points with Chern numbers C=2 or C=-2, which is unique among all the discovered WSMs. Our finding also provides a guiding line to observe the chiral anomaly that could manifest in novel transport properties. Input files for theoretical calculations and raw data from ARPES measurements are included in this record.