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Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6

Journal Article · · Science Bulletin
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  1. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics and Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics
  2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  3. Renmin Univ. of China, Beijing (China); Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ., Shanghai (China). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing (China)
  4. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Shanghai (China). Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facilities, Shanghai Inst. of Applied Physics
  5. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics and Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China)
  6. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  7. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics and Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics; Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics & Astronomy
  8. Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Inst. of Physics and Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing (China); Univ. of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing (China)

SmB6 has been a well-known Kondo insulator for decades, but recently attracts extensive new attention as a candidate topological system. Studying SmB6 under pressure provides an opportunity to acquire the much-needed understanding about the effect of electron correlations on both the metallic surface state and bulk insulating state. Here we do so by studying the evolution of two transport gaps (low temperature gap El and high temperature gap Eh) associated with the Kondo effect by measuring the electrical resistivity under high pressure and low temperature (0.3 K) conditions. We associate the gaps with the bulk Kondo hybridization, and from their evolution with pressure we demonstrate an insulator-to-metal transition at ~4 GPa. At the transition pressure, a large change in the Hall number and a divergence tendency of the electron-electron scattering coefficient provide evidence for a destruction of the Kondo entanglement in the ground state. In conclusion, our results raise the new prospect for studying topological electronic states in quantum critical materials settings.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; US Army Research Office (ARO); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-06NA25396
OSTI ID:
1431072
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1495505
Report Number(s):
LA-UR--17-30508
Journal Information:
Science Bulletin, Journal Name: Science Bulletin Journal Issue: 21 Vol. 62; ISSN 2095-9273
Publisher:
Elsevier; Science China PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (3)

Magnetic field-tuned Fermi liquid in a Kondo insulator journal December 2019
$\mathcal{Z}_2$ classification for a novel antiferromagnetic topological insulating phase in three-dimensional topological Kondo insulator journal October 2018
Valence transition in topological Kondo insulator journal October 2019

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