Probing uniaxial strain effects on SmB6 using <sup>11</sup>B solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance

POSTER

Abstract

The strongly-correlated and mixed valence Kondo insulator SmB6 has been shown to exhibit surface states, which are suggested to originate with non-trivial topology. The surface state conduction is observed to dominate over bulk conduction only at Li-He temperatures. However, recently reported results from transport measurements were interpreted as evidence for surface-dominated transport to temperatures as high as 240 K, consistent with a much larger bulk gap. 11B NMR relaxation measurements were carried out under strained conditions, as a means for studying at a microscopic level the gap evolution, and in search for evidence of a heterogeneous phase. In initial measurements, the behavior is consistent with a 50% increase in energy gap with only 0.5% uniaxial strain; experiments at higher strain are underway.

*This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DMR-1709304) and Los Alamos Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.

Presenters

  • Yue-Shun Su

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles

Authors

  • Yue-Shun Su

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Yongkang Luo

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles

  • Andrej Pustogow

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles
    • 1. Physikalisches Institut, Universität Stuttgart

  • Eric Bauer

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • MPA-CMMS, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, USA
    • MPA-CMMS, Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
    • Los Alamos National Labs

  • Stuart E Brown

    • Univ of California - Los Angeles
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles
    • University of California, Los Angeles