Closing the spin gap in the Kondo insulator Ce3Bi4Pt3 at high magnetic fields

Marcelo Jaime (), Roman Movshovich, Gregory R. Stewart, Ward P. Beyermann, Mariano Gomez Berisso, Michael F. Hundley, Paul C. Canfield and John L. Sarrao
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Marcelo Jaime: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Roman Movshovich: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Gregory R. Stewart: University of Florida
Ward P. Beyermann: University of California, Riverside
Mariano Gomez Berisso: Centro Atómico Bariloche
Michael F. Hundley: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Paul C. Canfield: Iowa State University
John L. Sarrao: Los Alamos National Laboratory

Nature, 2000, vol. 405, issue 6783, 160-163

Abstract: Abstract Kondo insulator materials1—such as CeRhAs, CeRhSb, YbB12, Ce3Bi4Pt3 and SmB6—are 3d, 4f and 5f intermetallic compounds that have attracted considerable interest in recent years2,3,4,5. At high temperatures, they behave like metals. But as temperature is reduced, an energy gap opens in the conduction band at the Fermi energy and the materials become insulating. This contrasts with other f-electron compounds, which are metallic at all temperatures. The formation of the gap in Kondo insulators has been proposed to be a consequence of hybridization between the conduction band and the f-electron levels6,7, giving a ‘spin’ gap. If this is indeed the case, metallic behaviour should be recovered when the gap is closed by changing external parameters, such as magnetic field or pressure. Some experimental evidence suggests that the gap can be closed in SmB6 (refs 5, 8) and YbB12 (ref. 9). Here we present specific-heat measurements of Ce3Bi4Pt3 in d.c. and pulsed magnetic fields up to 60 tesla. Numerical results and the analysis of our data using the Coqblin–Schrieffer model demonstrate unambiguously a field-induced insulator-to-metal transition.

Date: 2000
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DOI: 10.1038/35012027

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