Two-dimensional heavy fermions in the van der Waals metal CeSiI
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Uppsala Univ. (Sweden)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), San Sebastian (Spain)
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II)
- Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany); Univ. of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), San Sebastian (Spain); Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States)
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States); Flatiron Institute, New York, NY (United States)
Heavy-fermion metals are prototype systems for observing emergent quantum phases driven by electronic interactions. A long-standing aspiration is the dimensional reduction of these materials to exert control over their quantum phases, which remains a signifcant challenge because traditional intermetallic heavy-fermion compounds have three-dimensional atomic and electronic structures. Here we report comprehensive thermodynamic and spectroscopic evidence of an antiferromagnetically ordered heavy-fermion ground state in CeSiI, an intermetallic comprising two-dimensional (2D) metallic sheets held together by weak interlayer van der Waals (vdW) interactions. Owing to its vdW nature, CeSiI has a quasi-2D electronic structure, and we can control its physical dimension through exfoliation. The emergence of coherent hybridization of f and conduction electrons at low temperature is supported by the temperature evolution of angle-resolved photoemission and scanning tunnelling spectra near the Fermi level and by heat capacity measurements. Electrical transport measurements on few-layer fakes reveal heavy-fermion behaviour and magnetic order down to the ultra-thin regime. Importantly, our work establishes CeSiI and related materials as a unique platform for studying dimensionally confned heavy fermions in bulk crystals and employing 2D device fabrication techniques and vdW heterostructures to manipulate the interplay between Kondo screening, magnetic order and proximity efects.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; SC0023406; SC0012704; SC0019443; FA9550-21-1-037; DMR-1644779; DMR-2105048; DMR-2011738; DMR-1751949
- OSTI ID:
- 2305798
- Journal Information:
- Nature (London), Vol. 625; ISSN 0028-0836
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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