Direct observation of the spin texture in SmB6 as evidence of the topological Kondo insulator.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Topological Kondo insulators have been proposed as a new class of topological insulators in which non-trivial surface states reside in the bulk Kondo band gap at low temperature due to strong spin-orbit coupling. In contrast to other three-dimensional topological insulators, a topological Kondo insulator is truly bulk insulating. Furthermore, strong electron correlations are present in the system, which may interact with the novel topological phase. By applying spin- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, here we show that the surface states of SmB6 are spin polarized. The spin is locked to the crystal momentum, fulfilling time reversal and crystal symmetries. Our results provide strong evidence that SmB6 can host topological surface states in a bulk insulating gap stemming from the Kondo effect, which can serve as an ideal platform for investigating of the interplay between novel topological quantum states with emergent effects and competing orders induced by strongly correlated electrons.
منابع مشابه
Thin films of topological Kondo insulator candidate SmB6: Strong spin-orbit torque without exclusive surface conduction
The advent of topological insulators (TIs), a novel class of materials that harbor a metallic spin-chiral surface state coexisting with band-insulating bulk, opens up new possibilities for spintronics. One promising route is current-induced switching of an adjacent magnetic layer via spin-orbit torque (SOT), arising from the large spin-orbit coupling intrinsically possessed by TIs. The Kondo in...
متن کاملSpin- and angle-resolved photoemission on the topological Kondo insulator candidate: SmB6.
Topological Kondo insulators are a new class of topological insulators in which metallic surface states protected by topological invariants reside in the bulk band gap at low temperatures. Unlike other 3D topological insulators, a truly insulating bulk state, which is critical for potential applications in next-generation electronic devices, is guaranteed by many-body effects in the topological...
متن کاملSpin injection and inverse Edelstein effect in the surface states of topological Kondo insulator SmB6
There has been considerable interest in exploiting the spin degrees of freedom of electrons for potential information storage and computing technologies. Topological insulators (TIs), a class of quantum materials, have special gapless edge/surface states, where the spin polarization of the Dirac fermions is locked to the momentum direction. This spin-momentum locking property gives rise to very...
متن کاملLow-temperature magnetic fluctuations in the Kondo insulator SmB6
We present the results of a systematic investigation of the magnetic properties of the threedimensional Kondo topological insulator SmB6 using magnetization and muon-spin relaxation/rotation (�SR) measurements. The �SR measurements exhibit magnetic field fluctuations in SmB6 below �15 K due to electronic moments present in the system. However, no evidence for magnetic ordering is found down to ...
متن کاملObservation of possible topological in-gap surface states in the Kondo insulator SmB6 by photoemission
SmB6, a well-known Kondo insulator, exhibits a transport anomaly at low temperature. This anomaly is usually attributed to states within the hybridization gap. Recent theoretical work and transport measurements suggest that these in-gap states could be ascribed to topological surface states, which would make SmB6 the first realization of topological Kondo insulator. Here by performing angle-res...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Nature communications
دوره 5 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2014