Observation of possible topological in-gap surface states in the Kondo insulator SmB6 by photoemission

J. Jiang, S. Li, T. Zhang, Z. Sun, F. Chen, Z.R. Ye, M. Xu, Q.Q. Ge, S.Y. Tan, X.H. Niu, M. Xia, B.P. Xie, Y.F. Li, X.H. Chen, H.H. Wen and D.L. Feng ()
Additional contact information
J. Jiang: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
S. Li: Nanjing University
T. Zhang: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
Z. Sun: University of Science and Technology of China
F. Chen: Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Science at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
Z.R. Ye: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
M. Xu: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
Q.Q. Ge: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
S.Y. Tan: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
X.H. Niu: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
M. Xia: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
B.P. Xie: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University
Y.F. Li: Nanjing University
X.H. Chen: University of Science and Technology of China
H.H. Wen: Nanjing University
D.L. Feng: State Key Laboratory of Surface Physics, and Advanced Materials Laboratory, Fudan University

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract 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-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, we directly observe several dispersive states within the hybridization gap of SmB6. These states show negligible kz dependence, which indicates their surface origin. Furthermore, we perform photoemission circular dichroism experiments, which suggest that the in-gap states possess chirality of the orbital angular momentum. These states vanish simultaneously with the hybridization gap at around 150 K. Together, these observations suggest the possible topological origin of the in-gap states.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4010 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms4010

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms4010

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().