RESUMEN
Carbon allotropes are subject of intense investigations for their superb structural, electronic, and chemical properties, but not for topological band properties because of the lack of strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, we show that conjugated p-orbital interactions, common to most carbon allotropes, can in principle produce a new type of topological band structure, forming the so-called Weyl-like semimetal in the absence of SOC. Taking a structurally stable interpenetrated graphene network (IGN) as example, we show, by first-principles calculations and tight-binding modeling, that its Fermi surface is made of two symmetry-protected Weyl-like loops with linear dispersion along perpendicular directions. These loops are reduced to Weyl-like points upon breaking of the inversion symmetry. Because of the topological properties of these band-structure anomalies, remarkably, at a surface terminated by vacuum there emerges a flat band in the loop case and two Fermi arcs in the point case. These topological carbon materials may also find applications in the fields of catalysts.