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Here, fifteen years after the surprising discovery of superconductivity in iron-based materials, researchers are beginning to impart some of their newfound wisdom on a slew of emerging superconductors that display similar traits.
Experimental results presented during the 2016 International Conference on Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SECS2016) not only reflect the breadth of topics being explored in the field of strongly correlated systems but also the remarkable progress in discovery and understanding that is being made from their study. Lastly, this brief summary highlights just a few of the exciting experimental developments discussed at SCES2016.
Abstract Metals with kagome lattice provide bulk materials to host both the flat-band and Dirac electronic dispersions. A new family of kagome metals is recently discovered in A V 6 Sn 6 . The Dirac electronic structures of this material needs more experimental evidence to confirm. In the manuscript, we investigate this problem by resolving the quantum oscillations in both electrical transport and magnetization in ScV 6 Sn 6 . The revealed orbits are consistent with the electronic band structure models. Furthermore, the Berry phase of a dominating orbit is revealed to be around π , providing direct evidence for the topological band structure, which is consistent with calculations. Our results demonstrate a rich physics and shed light on the correlated topological ground state of this kagome metal.
Diverse quantum phenomena have been observed in TSn 4 transition metal (T) stannides, including superconductivity, nontrivial topology, and large magnetoresistance (MR) at low temperatures. Here, we report the experimental and theoretical investigation of tetragonal β-IrSn 4 (space group I 4 1 /acd) with the lattice parameters a = 6.362(3) Å and c = 22.723(0) Å. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity indicates that β-IrSn 4 is a good metal with Fermi-liquid behavior above the superconducting transition at T c ∼ 0.7 K. Magnetic susceptibility measurements indicate it is non-magnetic. However, positive transverse MR with linear field dependence is observed. At T= 2 K and Μ 0 H = 14 T, the MR reaches 700% without sign of saturation. Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations are observed from proximity detector oscillator measurements up to 60 T. We experimentally extract several frequencies, and through comparison to first-principles calculations, identify corresponding electronic bands. For H // c, two strong oscillations, F 1 ≈ 109 and F 2 ≈ 302 T, allow us to determine effective masses 0.266m 0 and 0.300m 0 (m 0 is the free-electron mass), respectively. The topology of these bands is discussed.
Recent work has shown novel properties of twisted cuprates. In this paper, I point out that related phenomena occur intrinsically in bismuth-based cuprate superconductors due to the presence of the BiO supermodulation. As the ratio of the supermodulation potential to the superconducting energy gap increases, two critical points are found where semi-Dirac nodes form (that is, they have quadratic dispersion in one direction and linear dispersion in the orthogonal direction). The first critical point should be realized in Bi2212, the second in Bi2201. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The ability of materials to convert charge current into spin current is fundamental to many spintronics applications. One means of realizing this conversion is via Rashba-Edelstein effect (REE). Using density functional theory simulations, we predict that REE can be induced in the recently discovered family of semiconducting ferroelectrics, CsGe𝑋 3 (𝑋 = I, Br, Cl). The effect is quantified through Rashba-Edelstein coefficients, 𝜒 𝑥𝑦 =−𝜒 𝑦𝑥 , which are nonzero in valence and conduction bands. The largest values, obtained for CsGeI 3 , are 3.45 × 10 10 $\frac{ℏ}{Λ cm}$ and 0.97 × 10 10 $\frac{ℏ}{Λ cm}$ in the conduction and valence bands, respectively. The values are comparable to, and sometimes exceed, those of other inorganic materials, although the maximal values occur away from the band edges. The coefficients' sign couples to the direction of spontaneous polarization, offering opportunities for nonvolatile spin current manipulation via external electric field. Furthermore, these coefficients are highly tunable through strain engineering owing to strain-induced variations in spin textures and energy isosurfaces. Specifically, 𝜒 in the valence band of CsGeI 3 is enhanced to 3.61 × 10 10 $\frac{ℏ}{Λ cm}$ under 5% biaxial strain. Given this potential, we synthesized CsGeI 3 to validate our simulation structure and found excellent agreement between experiment and simulation, thereby allowing extrapolation of our findings to practically significant temperatures. Furthermore, our study identifies promising materials for nonvolatile, multifunctional spintronic applications.
Kagome materials have attracted enormous research interest recently owing to their diverse topological phases and manifestation of electronic correlation. Here, in this study, we present the electronic structure of a distorted ferromagnetic kagome metal, NdTi 3 Bi 4 , exhibiting a transition temperature of 9 K. Our investigation employs a combination of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We discover the presence of two “flat” bands which are found to originate from the kagome structure formed by Ti atoms with a major contribution from Ti 𝑑 𝑥𝑦 and Ti 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 orbitals. We also observed multiple Van Hove singularities (VHSs) in its electronic structure, with one VHS lying near the Fermi level. The ARPES data reveal the existence of Dirac cone at the $\overline{𝐾}$ point, a finding which is corroborated by our DFT calculations. These findings present a detailed electronic structure capable of hosting correlation-driven phenomenon in this novel ferromagnetic kagome metal.
We studied the magnetoresistivity and the Hall effect of the type-I Weyl semimetal TaAs to address the controversy surrounding its anomalous transport properties in relation to its bulk topological character. For fields and currents along the basal plane, we observe a very pronounced planar Hall effect (PHE) upon field rotation with respect to the crystallographic axes at temperatures as high as T = 100K. Parametric plots of the PHE signal as a function of the longitudinal magnetoresistivity (LMR) collected at T = 10K lead to concentric traces as reported for Na 3 Bi and GdBiPt. This would suggest that the negative LMR and the PHE observed in TaAs are intrinsically associated with the axial anomaly among its Weyl nodes. For fields nearly along the a axis we observe hysteresis as one surpasses the quantum limit, where the magnetic torque indicates a change in regime as the field increases, i.e., from paramagnetism and diamagnetism due to Weyl fermions above and below the Weyl node(s), respectively, to a paramagnetic one associated with the field-independent n = 0 Landau level. Hysteresis coupled to the overall behavior of the torque would be consistent with a topological phase transition associated with the suppression of the Weyl dispersion at the quantum limit. This transition leads to the suppression of the negative LMR confirming that it is intrinsically associated with the Weyl dispersion. The Hall effect for fields along the c axis reveals two successive changes in slope, or two successive decrements in carrier mobility, one at the quantum limit and a second one at the critical field where a phase transition toward an insulating state was recently reported. This suggests the possibility of two successive phase transitions as function of the field with the higher-field one involving solely the n = 0 Landau level. Finally, for both field orientations we observe Shubnikov–de Haas like oscillations beyond the quantum limit hence involving quasiparticles at fractional filling factors.
We calculate the Hall viscosity and the nonlocal (i.e., dependent on wave vector q) Hall conductivity of “gapped graphene” (a nontopological insulator with two valleys) in the presence of a strong perpendicular magnetic field. Using the linear-response theory at zero temperature within the Dirac approximation for the Landau levels, we present analytical expressions for both valley and total Hall viscosities and conductivity up to q 2 at all frequencies. Although the final formulas for total Hall viscosity and conductivity are similar to the ones previously obtained for gapless graphene, the derivation reveals a significant difference between the two systems. First of all, both the Hall viscosity and the Hall conductivity vanish when the Fermi level lies in the gap that separates the lowest Landau level in the conduction band from the highest Landau level in the valence band. It is only when the Fermi level is not in the gap that the familiar formulas of gapless graphene are recovered. Second, in the case of gapped graphene, it is not possible (at least, within our present approach) to define a single-valley Hall viscosity: this quantity diverges with a strength proportional to the magnitude of the gap. It is only when both valleys are included that the diverging terms, having opposite signs in the two valleys, cancel out, and the familiar result is recovered. In contrast to this, the nonlocal Hall conductivity is finite in each valley. These results indicate that the Hoyos-Son formula [Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 066805 (2012)] connecting the Hall viscosity to the coefficient of q 2 in the small-q expansion of the q-dependent Hall conductivity cannot be applied to each valley, but only to the system as a whole. As a result, the problem of defining a “valley Hall viscosity” remains open.
Dirac states hosted by Sb/Bi square nets are known to exist in the layered antiferromagnetic AMnX 2 (A = CaSr/Ba/Eu/Yb, X=Sb/Bi) material family with the space group to be P 4 / n m m or I 4 / m m m . In this paper, we present a comprehensive study of quantum transport behaviors, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), and first-principles calculations on SrZnSb 2 , a nonmagnetic analog to AMnX 2 , which crystalizes in the p n m a space group with distorted square nets. Furthermore, from the quantum oscillation measurements up to 35 T, three major frequencies including F 1 = 103 T , F 2 = 127 T , and F 3 = 160 T are identified. The effective masses of the quasiparticles associated with these frequencies are extracted, namely, m 1 * = 0.1 m e , m 2 * = 0.1 m e , and m 3 * = 0.09 m e , where m e is the free electron mass. From the three band Lifshitz-Kosevich fit, the Berry phases accumulated along the cyclotron orbit of the quasiparticles are 0.06 π , 1.2 π , and 0.74 π for F 1 , F 2 , and F 3 , respectively. Finally, combined with the ARPES data and the first-principles calculations, we reveal that F 2 and F 3 are associated with the two nontrivial Fermi pockets at the Brillouin zone edge while F 1 is associated with the trivial Fermi pocket at the zone center. In addition, the first-principles calculations further suggest the existence of a Dirac nodal line in the band structure of SrZnSb 2 .
Twisted bilayer graphene displays insulating and superconducting phases caused by exceptional flattening of its lowest energy bands. Superconductivity with highest T c appears near half filling of the valence band (n ≈ –2). The data show that in the large part of the superconducting dome near n = –2, threefold lattice rotation symmetry is broken in the superconducting phase, i.e., a superconductor is also a nematic. We perform a comprehensive analysis of superconductivity in twisted-bilayer graphene within an itinerant approach and present a mechanism for nematic superconductivity. We take as an input the fact that at dopings, where superconductivity has been observed, the Fermi energy lies in the vicinity of twist-induced Van Hove singularities in the density of states. We argue that the low-energy physics can be properly described by patch models with either six or twelve Van Hove points. We obtain pairing interactions for the patch models in terms of parameters of the microscopic model for the flat bands, which contains both local and twist-induced nonlocal interactions. Here, we show that the latter give rise to attraction in different superconducting channels. For six Van Hove points, there is just one attractive d-wave channel, and we find chiral d ± id superconducting order, which breaks time-reversal symmetry but leaves the lattice rotation symmetry intact. For twelve Van Hove points, we find two attractive channels, g and i waves, with almost equal coupling constants. We show that both order parameters are nonzero in the ground state and explicitly demonstrate that in this co-existence state the threefold lattice rotation symmetry is broken, i.e., the superconducting state is also a nematic. We find two possible nematic states, one is time-reversal symmetric, the other additionally breaks time-reversal symmetry. We apply our scenario to twisted bilayer graphene near n = –2 and argue that it is applicable also to other systems with two (or more) attractive channels with similar couplings as our reasoning for a nematic superconductivity is based on generic symmetry considerations.
Electronic correlations are crucial to the low-energy physics of metallic systems with localized d and f states; however, their effect on band insulators and semiconductors is typically negligible. Here, we measure the electronic structure of the half-Heusler compound FeVSb, a band insulator with a filled shell configuration of 18 valence electrons per formula unit ( s 2 p 6 d 10 ). Additionally, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy reveals a mass renormalization of m * / m bare = 1.4 , where m * is the measured effective mass and m bare is the mass from density functional theory calculations with no added on-site Coulomb repulsion. Our measurements are in quantitative agreement with dynamical mean-field theory calculations, highlighting the many-body origin of the mass renormalization. This mass renormalization lies in dramatic contrast to other filled shell intermetallics, including the thermoelectric materials CoTiSb and NiTiSn, and has a similar origin to that in FeSi, where Hund's coupling induced fluctuations across the gap can explain a dynamical self-energy and correlations. Our work calls for a rethinking of the role of correlations and Hund's coupling in intermetallic band insulators.
The intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 undergoes a metamagnetic transition in a c-axis magnetic field. It has been predicted that ferromagnetic MnBi2Te4 is an ideal Weyl semimetal with a single pair of Weyl nodes. Here we report measurements of quantum oscillations detected in the field-induced ferromagnetic phase of MnBi 2-x Sb x Te 4 , where Sb substitution tunes the majority carriers from electrons to holes. Single-frequency Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations were observed in a wide range of Sb concentrations (0.54≤x≤1.21). The evolution of the oscillation frequency and the effective mass shows reasonable agreement with the Weyl semimetal band structure of ferromagnetic MnBi 2 Te 4 predicted by density functional calculations. Intriguingly, the quantum oscillation frequency shows a strong temperature dependence, indicating that the electronic structure depends sensitively on magnetism.
We have carried out quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations of silicon crystal focusing on the accuracy and systematic biases that affect the electronic structure characteristics. The results show that 64 and 216 atom supercells provide an excellent consistency for extrapolated energies per atom in the thermodynamic limit for ground, excited, and ionized states. We have calculated the ground state cohesion energy with both systematic and statistical errors below ≈ 0.05 eV. The ground state exhibits a fixed-node error of only 1.3(2)% of the correlation energy, suggesting an unusually high accuracy of the corresponding single-reference trial wave function. We obtain a very good agreement between optical and quasiparticle gaps that affirms the marginal impact of excitonic effects. Our most accurate results for band gaps differ from the experiments by about 0.2 eV. This difference is assigned to a combination of residual finite-size and fixed-node errors. In conclusion, we have estimated the crystal Fermi level referenced to vacuum that enabled us to calculate the edges of valence and conduction bands in agreement with experiments.
Several recent studies have shown that the anisotropy in the magnetic structure of EuCd 2 As 2 plays a significant role in stabilizing the Weyl nodes. Therefore, to investigate the relationship between magnetic anisotropy and Weyl physics, we present a comparative study between EuZn 2 As 2 and EuCd 2 As 2 that are isostructural but with different magnetic anisotropy. We performed structural analysis, electronic transport, and magnetization experiments on millimeter-sized single crystals of EuZn 2 As 2 , and compared the results to those of EuCd 2 As 2 . By combining the first principle calculations and neutron diffraction experiment, we identify the magnetic ground state of EuZn 2 As 2 as A-type antiferromagnetic order with a transition temperature (T_N = 19.6 K) twice that of EuCd 2 As 2 . Like EuCd 2 As 2 , the negative magnetoresistance of EuZn 2 As 2 is observed after suppressing the resistivity peak at T_N with increasing fields. However, the anisotropy in both transport and magnetization are much reduced in EuZn 2 As 2 . The difference could be ascribed to the weaker spin-orbit coupling, more localized d orbitals, and a larger contribution from the Eu s orbitals in the zinc compound, as suggested by the electronic band calculations. The same band structure effect could be also responsible for the observation of a smaller nonlinear anomalous Hall effect in EuZn 2 As 2 compared to EuCd 2 As 2 .
Recently, evidence has emerged for a field-induced even- to odd-parity superconducting phase transition in CeRh 2 As 2 . In this paper we argue that the P4/nmm nonsymmorphic crystal structure of CeRh 2 As 2 plays a key role in enabling this transition by ensuring large spin-orbit interactions near the Brillouin zone boundaries, which naturally leads to the required near-degeneracy of the even- and odd-parity channels. We further comment on the relevance of our theory to FeSe, which crystallizes in the same structure.
Herein we report the synthesis and characterization of RbNi 2 Se 2 , an analog of the iron chalcogenide superconductor Rb x Fe 2 Se 2 , via transport, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. A superconducting transition at T c =1.20 K is identified. In the normal state, RbNi 2 Se 2 shows paramagnetic and Fermi-liquid behaviors. A large Sommerfeld coefficient yields an effective electron mass of m* ≈ 6m e . In the superconducting state, zero-field electronic specific-heat data C es can be described by a two-gap BCS model, indicating that RbNi 2 Se 2 is a possible multigap superconductor. Our density functional theory calculations and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements demonstrate that RbNi 2 Se 2 exhibits relatively weak correlations and multiband characteristics, consistent with the multigap superconductivity.
Recently, anomalies in the temperature dependences of the carrier density and/or mobility derived from analysis of the magnetoresistivities using the conventional two-band model have been used to unveil intriguing temperature-induced Lifshitz transitions in various materials. For instance, two temperature-driven Lifshitz transitions were inferred to exist in the Dirac nodal-line semimetal ZrSiSe, based on two-band model analysis of the Hall magnetoconductivities where the second band exhibits a change in the carrier type from holes to electrons when the temperature decreases below T=106K and a dip is observed in the mobility vs temperature curve at T=80K. Here, in this study, we revisit the experiments and two-band model analysis on ZrSiSe. We show that the anomalies in the second band may be spurious because the first band dominates the Hall magnetoconductivities at T>80K, making the carrier type and mobility obtained for the second band from the two-band model analysis unreliable. That is, care must be taken in interpreting these anomalies as evidence for temperature-driven Lifshitz transitions. Our skepticism on the existence of such phase transitions in ZrSiSe is further supported by the validation of Kohler's rule for magnetoresistances for T≤180K. In this paper, we showcase potential issues in interpreting anomalies in the temperature dependence of the carrier density and mobility derived from the analysis of magnetoconductivities or magnetoresistivities using the conventional two-band model.