Two-dimensional Fermi surfaces in Kondo insulator SmB₆

G Li; Z Xiang; F Yu; T Asaba; B Lawson; P Cai; C Tinsman; A Berkley; S Wolgast; Y S Eo; Dae-Jeong Kim; C Kurdak; J W Allen; K Sun; X H Chen; Y Y Wang; Z Fisk; Lu Li

doi:10.1126/science.1250366

Two-dimensional Fermi surfaces in Kondo insulator SmB₆

Science. 2014 Dec 5;346(6214):1208-12. doi: 10.1126/science.1250366.

Authors

G Li¹, Z Xiang², F Yu¹, T Asaba¹, B Lawson¹, P Cai³, C Tinsman¹, A Berkley¹, S Wolgast¹, Y S Eo¹, Dae-Jeong Kim⁴, C Kurdak¹, J W Allen¹, K Sun¹, X H Chen⁵, Y Y Wang⁶, Z Fisk⁴, Lu Li⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
² Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei Anhui 230026, China.
³ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
⁵ Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei Anhui 230026, China.
⁶ Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA. [email protected].

PMID: 25477456
DOI: 10.1126/science.1250366

Abstract

In the Kondo insulator samarium hexaboride (SmB6), strong correlation and band hybridization lead to an insulating gap and a diverging resistance at low temperature. The resistance divergence ends at about 3 kelvin, a behavior that may arise from surface conductance. We used torque magnetometry to resolve the Fermi surface topology in this material. The observed oscillation patterns reveal two Fermi surfaces on the (100) surface plane and one Fermi surface on the (101) surface plane. The measured Fermi surface cross sections scale as the inverse cosine function of the magnetic field tilt angles, which demonstrates the two-dimensional nature of the conducting electronic states of SmB6.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.