Simple Chemical Rules for Predicting Band Structures of Kagome Materials

The kagome lattice, a hexagonal net of triangles, can host Dirac electronic states. However, rise of Dirac electronic states in compounds featuring the kagome lattice depends on the chemical bonding within a material. Starting from 3742 known compounds with the kagome lattice, we combine chemical heuristic, electric-structure calculations, and geometric considerations to create simple rules predicting if the low-energy physics of a compound will be dictated by the bonding within the kagome lattice.