Neutron scattering from the Kondo Insulator SmB6

COFFEE_KLATCH  · Invited

Abstract

A review of neutron scattering work probing the Kondo insulator SmB6 is presented with special emphasis on assessing the topology of the underlying strongly renormalized band structure. A 14 meV excition dominates the spectrum and is evidence of strong electron correlations [1]. Though the data generally supports the proposal that SmB6 is a topological Kondo insulator, specific heat and high-resolution neutron scattering data show a continuum of states well below the bulk transport gap, which enrich the problem and may connect to the recent surprising de Haas van Alpen results. \begin{enumerate} [1] “Interaction Driven Subgap Spin Exciton in the Kondo Insulator SmB6,” W.?T. Fuhrman, J. Leiner, P. Nikolic, G.?E. Granroth, M.?B. Stone, M.?D. Lumsden, L. DeBeer-Schmitt, P.?A. Alekseev, J.-M. Mignot, S.?M. Koohpayeh, P. Cottingham, W. Adam Phelan, L. Schoop, T.?M. McQueen, and C. Broholm, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 114}, 036401 (2015). \end{enumerate}

*Supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Material Sciences and Engineering, under Grant No. DEFG02-08ER46544 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Authors

  • Collin Broholm

    • Institute for Quantum Matter, Jonhs Hopkins University, and Quantum Condensed Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratories
    • Johns Hopkins University
    • Institute for Quantum Matter and Johns Hopkins University
    • Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Quantum Matter
    • Johns Hopkins Univ