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Title: Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6

Abstract

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.

Authors:
 [1];  [1]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [4];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7] more »;  [8];  [8] « less
  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)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
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 (NSFC)
OSTI Identifier:
1431072
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1495505
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-17-30508
Journal ID: ISSN 2095-9273
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; 2013/2018-0; W911NF-14-1-0525; C-1411
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Science Bulletin
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 62; Journal Issue: 21; Journal ID: ISSN 2095-9273
Publisher:
Elsevier; Science China Press
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS; Material Science; High pressure; Kondo insulator; Surface state; SmB6

Citation Formats

Zhou, Yazhou, Wu, Qi, Rosa, Priscila Ferrari Silveira, Yu, Rong, Guo, Jing, Yi, Wei, Zhang, Shan, Wang, Zhe, Wang, Honghong, Cai, Shu, Yang, Ke, Li, Aiguo, Jiang, Zheng, Zhang, Shuo, Wei, Xiangjun, Huang, Yuying, Sun, Peijie, Yang, Yi-feng, Fisk, Zachary, Si, Qimiao, Zhao, Zhongxian, and Sun, Liling. Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6. United States: N. p., 2017. Web. doi:10.1016/j.scib.2017.10.008.
Zhou, Yazhou, Wu, Qi, Rosa, Priscila Ferrari Silveira, Yu, Rong, Guo, Jing, Yi, Wei, Zhang, Shan, Wang, Zhe, Wang, Honghong, Cai, Shu, Yang, Ke, Li, Aiguo, Jiang, Zheng, Zhang, Shuo, Wei, Xiangjun, Huang, Yuying, Sun, Peijie, Yang, Yi-feng, Fisk, Zachary, Si, Qimiao, Zhao, Zhongxian, & Sun, Liling. Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6. United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2017.10.008
Zhou, Yazhou, Wu, Qi, Rosa, Priscila Ferrari Silveira, Yu, Rong, Guo, Jing, Yi, Wei, Zhang, Shan, Wang, Zhe, Wang, Honghong, Cai, Shu, Yang, Ke, Li, Aiguo, Jiang, Zheng, Zhang, Shuo, Wei, Xiangjun, Huang, Yuying, Sun, Peijie, Yang, Yi-feng, Fisk, Zachary, Si, Qimiao, Zhao, Zhongxian, and Sun, Liling. Tue . "Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6". United States. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2017.10.008. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1431072.
@article{osti_1431072,
title = {Quantum phase transition and destruction of Kondo effect in pressurized SmB6},
author = {Zhou, Yazhou and Wu, Qi and Rosa, Priscila Ferrari Silveira and Yu, Rong and Guo, Jing and Yi, Wei and Zhang, Shan and Wang, Zhe and Wang, Honghong and Cai, Shu and Yang, Ke and Li, Aiguo and Jiang, Zheng and Zhang, Shuo and Wei, Xiangjun and Huang, Yuying and Sun, Peijie and Yang, Yi-feng and Fisk, Zachary and Si, Qimiao and Zhao, Zhongxian and Sun, Liling},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1016/j.scib.2017.10.008},
journal = {Science Bulletin},
number = 21,
volume = 62,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Tue Oct 24 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}

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