Dirac Node Lines in Pure Alkali Earth Metals

Beryllium is a simple alkali earth metal, but has been the target of intensive studies for decades because of its unusual electron behavior at surfaces. The puzzling aspects include (i) severe deviations from the description of the nearly free-electron picture, (ii) an anomalously large electron-phonon coupling effect, and (iii) giant Friedel oscillations. The underlying origins for such anomalous surface electron behavior have been under active debate, but with no consensus. Here, by means of first-principles calculations, we discover that this pure metal system, surprisingly, harbors the Dirac node line (DNL) that in turn helps to rationalize many of the existing puzzles. The DNL is featured by a closed line consisting of linear band crossings, and its induced topological surface band agrees well with previous photoemission spectroscopy observations on the Be (0001) surface. We further reveal that each of the elemental alkali earth metals of Mg, Ca, and Sr also harbors the DNL and speculate that the fascinating topological property of the DNL might naturally exist in other elemental metals as well.