Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy of Kondo Insulator SmB6

ORAL

Abstract

Kondo insulator SmB6 has recently been predicted to be a candidate three-dimensional topological insulator with truly insulating bulk. Here we report on a pilot scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STS) study of the surface properties of single crystal SmB6. We find that a room-temperature cleaved SmB6 (001)-surface is mostly disordered, while large 3x1 reconstructed areas can be obtained by annealing the samples at 1450\textordmasculine C. Without cleaving, the as-grown (001)-surface also exhibits a 3x1 reconstruction after room-temperature sputtering, and annealing at 1450 \textordmasculine C. At low temperatures, a gap-like feature appears in the measured STS spectra, and finite density of states is observed at the Fermi energy.

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Authors

  • Di Chen

    • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Yuntao Li

    • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Xunchi Chen

    • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Zhiling Dun

    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  • Geoffrey Rojas

    • CNMS, Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Haidong Zhou

    • University of Tennessee, Knoxville

  • Petro Maksymovych

    • CNMS, Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Phillip First

    • Georgia Institute of Technology

  • Zhigang Jiang

    • Georgia Institute of Technology