Electronic Structure and Correlation Effects in PuCoIn$_5$ as Compared to PuCoGa$_5$
ORAL
Abstract
Since their discovery nearly a decade ago, plutonium-based superconductors have attracted considerable interest, which is now heightened by the latest discovery of superconductivity in PuCoIn$_5$. In the framework of density functional theory (DFT) within the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) together with dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT), we present a comparative study of the electronic structure of superconducting PuCoIn$_5$ with an expanded unit cell volume relative to its PuCoGa$_5$ cousin. Overall, a similar GGA-based electronic structure, including the density of states, energy dispersion, and Fermi surface topology, was found for both compounds. The GGA Pu 5$f$ band was narrower in PuCoIn$_5$ than in PuCoGa$_5$ due to the expanded lattice, resulting in an effective reduction of Kondo screening in the former system, as also shown by our DMFT calculations.
*This work was supported by U. S. DOE at LANL, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, and LANL LDRD Program.
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